ElseworldsBook Two:  Infinite Worlds
by Kal-El2k9
Summary: Clark attempts to stop a scientist from destroying his universe while Lucas tries to stop the annihilation of the entire multiverse.  Sequel to my Elseworlds story...part 2 of a trilogy.  R&R please.
1. Chapter 1

Elseworlds: Book Two

Infinite Worlds

Note:

Okay, everyone, I'm back with the first chapter in the second story in my Elseworlds trilogy. I hope you guys have been anxiously awaiting it and I also hope that it lives up to your expectations. You can expect to see some of the characters from the mirror universe, as well as a couple of new characters from a couple of other universes. I can't promise you that I'll get this story updated as quickly as the last one. It's been pretty busy at my job lately and my home computer is still in the shop. So, I'll try to get it updated weekly at the least. Maybe twice a week. Anyway…on with the show!

Chapter One

Earth Ninety-Seven

12:58 A.M.

Professor Emil Hamilton leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He had been staring at the computer monitor in front of him all evening. He got up and walked across the nearly empty laboratory to the small room that served as a kitchen to get a cup of coffee. He had only been in this new space for a couple of days, since Lionel Luthor had decided to move him out of his secret base in the cellar of his mansion and put him in a lab at LuthorCorp. Most of his equipment was still in Smallville.

He cursed silently under his breath as he realized that his assistant had not put on a new pot of coffee before she had left for the day. It was not really part of her duties to do so, but there had always been an unspoken rule that the rookies made the coffee for the real scientists. He shrugged and put a couple of scoops into a filter and filled the coffee maker with fresh water.

When he stepped back into the spacious white room he noticed that the numbers on the small screen above the elevator doors were changing. Slowly they climbed from one to twelve. It would only be a moment before they reached twenty-four, which was where he was now. Hamilton knew that his floor and all of the ones above it contained nothing but LuthorCorp's most secret experiments, which meant that anyone on the elevator had to have a key to bring it that high. He walked over to the elevator and patiently waited until the numbers halted and the doors spread apart.

"Good evening, Emil," Lionel Luthor said as he stepped out of the elevator. He was still limping and relying on a cane for support after his injury the week before. "Working hard?"

"Of course, Mr. Luthor," Hamilton replied. "I'm following your orders to the letter."

Luthor looked around at the mostly empty room as he took off his long black coat and hung it over the crook of his arm. He nodded.

"But you don't agree with them," he said. Hamilton made no comment to this remark. He glanced at the floor as Luthor continued to look around. "Show me what you've been doing."

Hamilton nodded and led his employer across the floor to the small computer work station that he had been sitting in front of for the past several hours. He sat down in front of the monitor as Luthor stood behind him, looking over his shoulder. Hamilton tapped the keyboard a few times and he brought up a picture of Luthor's son, Lucas. The skin on Lucas' face was stripped away and they found themselves looking at a cross section of the young man's brain.

"I've been working on all of them," Hamilton said. "But this is an image from Adam. He's the first one that we created when we started collecting samples of Lucas' DNA."

"My first failure as a father," Luthor replied. "Certainly not my last."

Hamilton made no response before he went on. "Adam's brain is completely intact and capable of sustaining his vital systems. If he were exposed to the atmosphere, he would be able to breathe and so forth. However, I have not opened up the conscious part of his mind. And, per your orders, I've been erasing the files on the memory and training programs that I had developed for download."

Luthor nodded. "I'm sorry that I had to ask you to do this, Emil. I know that the clones were your life's work. But you're only in your mid-thirties. You'll have more experiments with which to form your legacy." Hamilton took a breath as if he wanted to say something, but then he closed his mouth again. "I can see that you're wanting to express yourself. Go ahead."

"With all due respect, sir," Hamilton said. "It's not my legacy that I'm concerned over. These clones are not just mindless automatons. They're living creatures. You say that you've changed after the events of last week, but then you condone the murder of ten innocent young men."

"I never said that I wanted them killed, Emil," Luthor replied. "Bring them up."

Hamilton tapped a few keys on his computer and a large area of the floor in front of them slid away. Ten cylinders emerged from below. They were all about eight feet tall and were filled with a yellowish liquid. Suspended inside of each of them was a man that looked exactly like Lucas Luthor, all the way down to the small birthmark on his right shoulder. There was a name plate above each of them that bore the name that Hamilton had designated to them on the day that they had grown to maturity. Luthor stepped over and looked into the expressionless face of Adam. His brother, Brice, hung in suspended animation next to him. And then Caleb and on down the line.

"There's nothing here, Emil," he said. "They're just empty shells. And their very existence is a reminder of the wrongs that I committed during the last two decades."

"I could download a facsimile of Lucas' memories into one of them," Hamilton offered. "He would think that he was Lucas. You could have another chance."

"Lucas is dead," Luthor said. "I caused him to break and to kill. He redeemed himself in the end, giving his life to save the life of his double. I can be proud that in the end he became what I believe he was sent here to be…a hero."

"But you're denying these men the right to do the same," Hamilton said. "They have all of the powers that Lucas had. I've even opened up their genetic material a little more to allow them even more abilities. I'm pretty sure that they would be able to fly. And I'm taken away their vulnerability to meteor rocks of any color. That's something that I was never able to do with Lucas because I didn't have access to his cells as they were forming. They could be team of heroes, Mr. Luthor. And you're going to take all of that away from them."

"I've thought over all of that, Emil," Luthor said as he strode back over to the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. He poured one for Hamilton as well and brought it over to him. "I dreamed of forming a kind of LuthorCorp security team that could travel the world and avert disasters. Before last week I had wanted to sell the technology to Quran for a generous price. Or even rent them out as mercenaries. The possibilities are endless. But, unfortunately, so are the risks. What if I allow them to keep their powers and they find out what they are? Who's to say that they won't experience the same mental snap that Lucas did and go on a rampage? Lucas nearly destroyed Smallville Medical Center. Not to mention the damage that he did to the mansion. Can you imagine the damage that ten enraged Kryptonian males could do to a city like Metropolis? Now, tell me where you are in the second part of your work."

Hamilton turned back to his computer and punched in a series of codes. The picture of the clone's brain disappeared and was replaced with the outline of a human body. Red lines moved throughout the body almost as if they were looking at the blood flow.

"I've created a modified x-ray machine that produces radiation that is equivalent to that given off by a red dwarf star," Hamilton said, gesturing to the images and schematics on the monitor. "It will fuse to their cells and cancel out the abilities that they possess due to exposure to our sun's rays."

"Why not just expose them to the green meteor rocks?" Luthor asked. "It stripped Clark of his powers when he came over."

"That could kill them," Hamilton said. "And even if it didn't, Clark was extremely weak until I gave him the serum that released the pent up solar energy in his cells. They can't go through life like that." He brought up another screen that showed another cross section of the brain. He knew what all of the codes that ran alongside it meant, and just assumed that Luthor did as well. Luthor seemed as though he understood and Hamilton did not dare to question otherwise. "After that's done, I'll download a memory program that is just advanced enough for them to function and to learn. They will not know anything other than their name."

"Good," Luthor replied. "I'm going to have each of them taken to a different location and placed there. They will be given money, and then they will be on their own." He smiled at Hamilton. "They will be fine, Emil. There was a time when I would simply have ordered their destruction. But I want them to live as much as you do. I may even want it more. These clones are all that is left of my son."

Hamilton nodded. "When do you want me to begin the introduction of red radiation?"

"When can you begin?" Luthor asked.

"It will take me about two hours to get them out of the cylinders and breathing on their own," he replied. "I suppose that I can begin after that."

"I'm afraid that I'm going to have to delay your plans."

Hamilton had thought that it was Luthor's voice that he had heard, but realized that the words had come from behind him. He turned around in his chair and saw a form standing in the shadows of the far side of the room. Hamilton had only bothered to turn on the lights in the section that he was going to be working. Now, a stranger stood in the darkness. As soon as both men had turned to him, he began to walk toward them. When he had stepped out into enough light to see his face, Hamilton could see that he was looking into another version of his own face. This Hamilton was sporting a full beard in opposition to his own clean shaven face. And he was not wearing glasses. He was looking at both men with a hint of evil gleaming in his eye, which went along well with the revolver that he had leveled at them.

"Emil?" Luthor asked. "You're Emil Hamilton from another world?"

"Yes," the other man said with a trace of boredom in his voice. "However, I stopped going by that name a couple of years ago. It gets a bit confusing when you crossover as much as I do. My name is Samson Wentworth."

"Samson Wentworth?" Hamilton asked. "That's my grandfather's name in reverse."

"On my mother's side," Wentworth said. "You're correct."

"How did you get here?" Luthor asked, stealing an occasional nervous glance at the gun in the man's hand. Wentworth motioned to a far corner where Hamilton had stored the projector that he had used to send Clark and Chloe home. At the moment it was in severe disrepair. The last use had taken a lot out of it and Hamilton had been so busy with his move and his work with the clones that he had not taken a second look at it.

"I've perfected the technology that piece of crap utilizes," Wentworth replied. "I don't shoot myself with a laser or anything. My way is much less painful. And a lot quieter I might add. And that's useful when you're trying to sneak up on someone with a gun." He smiled.

Hamilton could see that whatever world this man had come from had to have done something to him to make him so sinister. It had taken all the courage that he could muster to attack Clark with a meteor rock when he had thought him to be Lucas. He could never imagine holding an innocent person at gunpoint. And yet he was watching himself do just that.

"What do you want?" Luthor asked.

"First, I want you to shut up," Wentworth replied. "I can't even believe you're here. Are you as corrupt in this world as you are in most of the others that I've been to? Because, if you are, you may want to begin putting your affairs in order. Eighty-five percent of the Lionel Luthors in the multiverse have been murdered by someone that he double crossed. I just thought that you should know that."

"That's good to know," Luthor said. "Why don't you put down that gun and we can talk about the rest of your demands?"

"Why don't you shut up?" Wentworth said, aiming the gun directly at Luthor. "Or should I just go ahead and kill you? Because Hamilton and his clones are what I'm really after!"

Hamilton cocked his head. "What do you know about my clones?"

"We've been trying to perfect cloning technology for years," Wentworth said. "Different versions of you and I have successfully cloned different animals and plants. One cloned a woman, but she died. You are the only one that cloned a Kryptonian male that is immune to kryptonite."

"I'm probably the only one that had unlimited access to a subject," Hamilton said.

"Probably," Wentworth said. "I've been watching you work over the last few months, and I've figured out all of the things that you did right that the others did wrong. And the program that you wrote to download memories into their brains was genius. You won't have to train them. Just program ninjitsu into their brains and you've got a bunch of super powered ninjas."

Hamilton did not know what to say to all of these compliments coming from a man that was waving a gun in his face. He gulped. "Thank you?" He said it more as a question than a statement.

"You're welcome, Professor," Wentworth said, staring in admiration at the ten clones lined up before him. "I'm just sorry that I'm going to have to take them from you."

"You're what?" Hamilton asked.

"I'm taking your clones," Wentworth said. "As a matter of fact, I'm taking the whole lab." He picked up Luthor's coffee cup and took a sip. "This, too. Thanks."

"Professor Wentworth…" Luthor started.

"I'm not a professor," Wentworth said. "I actually have a PhD in twenty-three different fields. Nine of them are not even available in this dimension. So I'd appreciate it if you'd call me 'doctor'."

"Very well," Luthor corrected himself. "Doctor Wentworth, this building will be crawling with security in just a few hours. You won't be able to hold out very long against them. They are trained to take down an attacker, even if you succeed in killing Emil and I."

"I'm not going to kill you, Lionel," Wentworth said. "At least, I hope that I won't have to. I'm going to need Emil's help. And don't worry about the security. I said that I'm taking the lab…not the building. By the time your over glorified football team arrives the lab will not only no longer be a part of the building, it will no longer be a part of this Earth."

Hamilton sighed and shook his head. That did not sound good.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Samson Wentworth had Luthor and Hamilton sit down in the break area. He closed and locked the door, but only after being sure that he had collected both of their cell phones and any other items that could be used as either a weapon or a means of escape. It crossed Hamilton's mind that his counterpart had done this before, and had seemed to have gotten good at it.

_Is this what I'm capable of? _he thought. He had been a part of shady dealings in the past, especially during his tenure as Luthor's own private mad scientist. But he had never actively gone about pointing guns at people. In this world his careers focus had been on the creation of the Lucas clones. Evidently, if he had pursued his interdimensional travel theories, he could have turned out to be like Doctor Wentworth.

"What do you want with them?" he asked as Wentworth was closing the door.

"You'll find out in due time, Professor," his double replied. "Please, don't do anything foolish. I've had to kill you twice since I started doing this. Each time it really makes me feel awful." He looked at Lionel Luthor. "And if I killed you I'd only be fulfilling the multiverse legacy. Let's see how long one Lionel Luthor can survive. Shall we?" He closed the door and they heard the dull click as the locking mechanism fell into place.

"Why the hell would you put a lock on the break room?" Luthor asked.

"I didn't design this building," Hamilton replied. "This is _Luthor_Corp. Remember?"

"What do you suppose he's up to?" Luthor asked. "What could he want with the clones?"

"If he has plans of world domination then ten super powered young men would give him an advantage," Hamilton said.

Luthor nodded. "Especially since the meteor rocks have no effect on them. They have no weakness. There will be no way to stop them."

"None that I know of," Hamilton said. "I had a few fail-safes in the program that I was going to download into them, but I had just finished erasing all of that data when you came in."

"Why did we create those things?" Luthor asked himself out loud.

"Fame and fortune," Hamilton said with a hint of contempt in his voice. "Those are both things that you've never been able to refuse."

Luthor nodded. He sat back and closed his eyes. Every life that was taken after this moment would be on his hands.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Samson Wentworth reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device that looked like a television remote. It was silver and had only a few buttons on it. He pointed one at the center of the large room, only a few yards from where the clones floated mindlessly in their cylinders. The air in that area began to wave and shimmer as if something were causing an intense heat. After a moment there was a flash of light and a loud crashing sound and then everything was quiet. In the space where there had been nothing before there was now a tower of wires and computer parts that reached from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Wentworth pressed another button on his controller and lights began to flash on and off all over the structure. A pulse of green light emitted from the bottom and flashed its way all the way to the top over and over again. And a gentle, constant hum filled room, giving testament to the amount of raw energy being produced by this device.

Wentworth smiled and chuckled softly to himself. He walked over to the object and chair materialized in front of him. It was attached to it and he sat down, facing one of the many computers housed in the tower's structure. He hurriedly tapped in a series of commands that he had evidently typed out so many times that it was second nature. After a few minutes there was a soft whirring sound as small compartments opened up in the top of the tower. Little silver rods emerged from inside and there was a crack and sizzle as energy leapt out of them and connected them together with thin fingers of blue electricity. He typed in the last command and got up to get a safe distance away.

He covered his head as a bright blue light filled the room and a burst of energy suddenly erupted from the rods. The electricity that had been crawling around the top of the tower now made its way outward, forming a shell around the lab. Wentworth watched in glee as the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room vanished before his eyes. He was now standing in an area that was nothing more than a bright blue light. He could still see the tower, the computer station, and the cylinders that held the clones. Everything was still exactly where it should have been in relation to one another in the laboratory. But now it all looked as if it were floating in a blue cloud.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Hamilton and Luthor nearly jumped out of their skin at the thunderous sound coming from the other room. They shot up out of their chairs. Hamilton rushed forward to pound on the door just as that same door was vanishing. He stepped through the space where the wall had been and fell to the floor. Only then did he realize that the floor itself was gone. He turned back and looked at Lionel Luthor. The man looked as if he were standing on nothing. It almost looked as if he were flying over a dark blue cloud that was constantly rumbling with energy. The coffeepot and the microwave oven were still there, but they, too, seemed to be floating.

"What have you done?" Hamilton asked as he turned to Wentworth. The double was looking up at his tower in astonishment.

"Don't you like it?" Wentworth said. "You created it. Or at least the version of you on Earth Seventeen created it before I killed him and took it."

"What on earth is it?" Luthor asked.

"It's not on Earth, Mr. Luthor," Wentworth replied. "And, I might add, neither are you. We're in a sort of multiverse purgatory. We are currently not located on any world in the multiverse."

"That's not possible," Hamilton said. "If we were not in any world then we effectively would not exist."

"Effectively, we don't," Wentworth said. "If this shell that I've set up around us were to give away right now then we would all be gone forever. But from this place you can travel to any alternate dimension that you choose, or just observe what's happening in them. That's how I knew when to come to you. I knew when you were about to get rid of these boys."

"What are you going to do now?" Luthor asked.

"I'll tell you all about that in time," Wentworth said. "Right now I have to get the boys out of those stupid cylinders."

"No!" Hamilton yelled, running forward. Wentworth turned just as the professor reached him and he put the pistol barrel to his forehead. Hamilton had nearly forgotten about the gun.

"I will kill you, Emil," he said. "I don't want to. But my work is much more important to me than your life. So step back over there and be quiet until I need you."

Hamilton nodded. He went back to where Luthor was still standing. Wentworth sat down in the chair at the computer station. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small USB key and plugged it into the console. Instantly the data stored on the key downloaded into the computer and the clone that was nearest to him began to stir slowly. Wentworth tapped another few keys and then turned to Hamilton.

"I need you to drain the cylinder and let him out," he said.

"You don't realize what you're doing," Hamilton said.

"I know exactly what I'm doing," Wentworth replied. "Now let him out."

Hamilton slowly went over and sat down at the console. He punched in his authorization code and a few commands. The liquid in the cylinder drained out into a hole. They could see the liquid falling out into the void that surrounded them, but it vanished almost as quickly. Then the cylinder lifted up from around the clone. Hamilton turned and looked at Wentworth.

"Are you satisfied?" he asked.

"No," Wentworth replied. "Go and wake him."

Hamilton took another look at his creation. Luthor had ordered him to strip them of their powers and he had tried to come up with any way possible to stop that from happening. Now, he not only wished that they had done it the day before, but he wished that he had never created them in the first place.

He tapped in a final command into the console and walked over to where the boy was standing.

"Adam," he said. "Can you hear me? This is your father. Wake up, Son."

The clone opened its eyes and looked at him. He opened his mouth. His voice sounded eerily like Lucas' but with an almost robotic tone.

"Hello, Father," he said. Then he ripped his hand from the shackle that held it and grabbed Hamilton by the throat, lifting him into the air. "I'm awake!"

End of chapter one.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Earth Thirty-Six

He was ready. The fact that he was still alive was a miracle. He knew that he should have been killed by…

_By what?_

When he had first awakened after what had sent him here, he had a perfect knowledge of what had happened. There had been some kind of an accident and he had lost his body. His molecules had been dispersed across an infinite number of alternate versions of his world. He had been in all of them at the same time. But as time when by and he slowly began the daunting task of piecing himself back together, he had slowly lost most of his memory.

He knew that his first name was Lucas. He was almost as sure that his last name was Luthor. He was not sure which of the universes that had lay out before him was the one that he had called home. But he knew that whichever one it was would not miss him very much. He was pretty sure that he had been one of the bad guys in that world. He had memories from that life, but dwelling on them was like watching a movie. It did not feel like his life. That was not who he was now. That person had intentionally hurt people. He felt a burning rage inside him, but he knew that it could not be aimed at the innocent, even though these memories contradicted that.

What had made him so angry? It was something that his father had done to him, but he did not know what it could be. Whatever it had been, it had caused him to go on a rampage that left at least two dead from what he could remember. One of them was an out right murder. The last thing that he remembered was watching his double from another world slowly die in the beam of a machine that was powered by meteor rocks. The rocks had always made him sick and being that close to the raw energy coming from the machine was hurting him as well. Their minds had merged, and for a few seconds they had almost been the same person. Lucas remembered thinking that he had to do something to help the other man. After that, he had found himself in a void without a body. He had been nothing more that his own thoughts.

_Did I save him?_ he was thinking. _Did I push him out of the way and get blasted by the projector?_ He could almost feel the burning sensation that had spread through his arms and legs as the poisonous energy filled his body. He cursed inwardly. _Why can't I remember?_

It did not make any sense to him. He could remember everything when he had gotten here. And now that he was almost completely back together he had lost most of his memory. How could that be?

But he did have an idea of what could have happened. When he had started pulling his molecules together he had found the work pretty easy. He found that it was like his consciousness had spread out along with the rest of him. He could see into every world that one of his cells had landed in. Those cells were collecting information about the other worlds even as he was calling them to him. Now he knew what to find on billions of different worlds. But some of his cells and molecules had been so corrupted with kryptonite that he had been forced to discard them. He replaced them with atoms that were floating around in the void that had come from some other world. In a sense, he was made up of pieces of an infinite number of worlds throughout the multiverse. But he lost whatever memories were encoded in the discarded bits.

Now, he was a cloud of vapor that contained all of his molecules. He was ready to put it all together and become human again, but at the same time he found that he was afraid to do so. He remembered that he had extraordinary abilities back where he had come from. He thought that it was because he had been born on another planet or something like that. But he was afraid that he would discover that he no longer had the superior strength and speed that he had once enjoyed. But he knew deep down that he had to have some kind of special powers. How else could he have been able to survive without a body?

He did not have any ears to hear with, but his being could still sense that there was a woman screaming in the streets below. He lowered himself closer to the ground level and found where the sound was coming from. There was a woman running through a deserted alleyway with two large men running right behind her. One of them reached out and grabbed the back of her coat and threw her on the ground. The other one pulled a pistol from his belt and aimed it at her. They were probably trying to get her money. Then they would most likely rape her or kill her. They would probably do both.

The fog that was Lucas touched the ground and two human bare feet stepped out of it. To anyone watching it would appear that a fit young naked man was merely emerging from a cloud of fog. They would not suspect that the man had actually been the fog a moment before.

It had been over a week since Lucas had walked, but he found that he had very little trouble remembering how to do it. His legs did not feel weak in the least. He casually strode over to where the two men were preparing to do whatever their twisted minds had come up with to the young woman. He was glad to hear that his voice did not crack when he spoke.

"Are you guys looking for a fight?" he said. The two men turned around quickly and looked at him. "Because I could really use the exercise."

"What the…?" one of them said. "Y'know you was naked?"

Lucas looked down at his bare body. "No. I didn't. Why don't you give me your clothes?"

"This guy's nuts," the other man said. He turned to the man with the gun. "Shoot 'em, Donny."

Donny raised the pistol and fired. Lucas watched the bullet leave the chamber and easily slapped it out of the air like a pesky bug. Donny's eyes widened. The other man had turned back to the girl and missed Lucas' stunt. Donny tapped him on the shoulder.

"Larry," he said. "I can't."

"What do you mean?" Larry replied. He turned to find Lucas still standing there. "Hey! I know that guy! That's the guy from the news couple'a years back! The alien guy!"

"I thought they had him locked up at LexCorp," Donny said.

"I'll bet there's a hell'a reward for bringin' 'em back!" Larry said. He pulled a knife from his pocket and began to advance on him. Lucas held up a hand and a burst of white energy shot out of it. White fingers of electricity covered Larry's body and he fell to the ground. He lay there, convulsing as the energy surged through him. When it subsided, he did not get up. Lucas listened carefully and picked up the faint sound of the man's pulse. He would be alright.

Lucas looked at his hand. How did he do that? He had never been able to do that before. He saw Donny leveling the gun at him again. He pointed a finger at him and shot out one long strand of current. He hit the gun and Donny screamed, throwing the weapon away. He turned and ran but Lucas reached out to him with even more white energy and snatched him up from the ground. He hurled him into the air and let him come crashing down. He walked to the man's side and stood over him. He pointed a finger at his unconscious face.

"Don't," a voice called out. He turned and saw the young woman getting up from the ground. "Don't kill them."

Had he been about to kill them? He had not even thought about doing it. Was murder so engrained in his subconscious that he could not even stop a simple robbery without taking a life. And with these new powers it would have been so simple.

Then the woman stepped out into the light. He saw her big blue eyes and the soft, blonde hair that he had known before. He felt a small smile play at his lips.

"Chloe?" he asked.

"Do I know you?" she replied.

He stared at her for a few seconds. It was her. It was Chloe. But the last time he saw her he was staring into her horror stricken face as he allowed the car that she was in to slam into his body. A few minutes later the car exploded with her still inside.

But that was back in the world that he had come from. This was another place. This was another Chloe.

"No," Lucas said. "Are you alright?"

"I think so," she replied. She quickly looked down and then back up again. "I really appreciate you rescuing me and everything…but is there some reason why you're wondering around Metropolis in the nude?"

Lucas looked down at his body. He blushed and walked over to the two thugs that lay out cold on the pavement. He quickly figured out which of them would likely be closer to his size. It was Donny. The version of Chloe that was watching only saw a blur as he stripped the man's clothes off and put them on at the speed of sound. When he turned back to her he was wearing a pair of torn jeans, a black leather jacket, and a t-shirt with a Metropolis Sharks logo on it.

"I'm sorry about that," he said. "I'm not crazy. It's really a long story."

"You escaped from LexCorp," Chloe said. "Am I right?"

Why did everyone keep talking about LexCorp? Were they talking about LuthorCorp? He did not know anyone named Lex.

"I'm sorry?" Lucas asked.

"That guy said that he thought you were the alien that the government caught a couple of years ago. Supposedly, he's in a cage at LexCorp and they're doing experiments on him. You do sort of look like him."

"If you're alright, I need to go," he said.

"Okay," Chloe replied. "Thank you."

Lucas nodded. Then he disappeared around the corner and there was a loud sonic boom and he sped off into the night.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Lucas found a place to rest in another alley in a less lit part of town. He sat on the back steps of a butcher shop and closed his eyes. He was tired. He never remembered getting tired before. But then again, he had not been in this solid form in a while. It had only been a few days, but he felt like it had been years since his feet had touched the solid ground. He had almost fallen asleep when his sensitive ears picked up the subtle sound of high heeled boots tapping their way toward him. He jumped up and held up his hand, feeling his new electrical energy crackle around his fingertips.

"Who's there?" he called.

"Why didn't you tell her who you were?" a small voice called back. A woman about Lucas' age stepped into what little light there was. She was at least a foot shorter than he was and she was wearing black leather jacket that looked like it was made to be worn by a man, much like the one that he was wearing. That was the only normal thing about her. The clothes that she wore under the jacket looked a lot like a spandex material. It was a one piece suit but Lucas could not really make out the color in this light. It looked like a dark blue. Her boots were red and they came all the way up to her knees. Her black hair was very short, exposing tiny points on the tips of her ears.

"Are you a Vulcan?" he asked as he put his hands down.

"I'm a human," she replied. "My name is Anya. Why didn't you tell Ms. Sullivan who you were? She believes you to be the Clark Kent of this world. And he's being held captive by Lex Luthor."

"What are you talking about?" Lucas asked. "I didn't tell her who I was because it's not important."

"She's a reporter for the Daily Star," Anya said. "She'll probably publish an article tomorrow telling how the alien escaped and rescued her from being raped or murdered. When it comes out that Clark is still at LexCorp, she'll look foolish."

"Why are you telling me this?" Lucas asked as he sat back down on the steps and cradled his head in his hands.

"I'm telling you because you have to be more careful about who you interact with when you cross over," she replied.

"How did you know that I was from another world?" Lucas asked.

"It's just something that I picked up along the way," she replied. "Just be a little more careful. Okay?"

Lucas nodded. He watched in silence as the woman turned and slowly strolled back into the darkness. He did not bother going after her. He did not know who she was and he could not see why he needed to. He propped his head against the door of the butcher shop and dozed off.

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The sun peeked over the edge of the building and shone directly down onto the place where Lucas lay sleeping with his face on the asphalt. He woke up with the feeling of the sun's rays penetrating every pore of his body. He could feel raw energy that had been penned up inside of him being released. The weakness and fatigue that had plagued him since he had taken back his solid form left him immediately. He felt better than he had in years. He almost felt like he could…

He looked down and realized that his feet were at least six feet from the ground. He was floating in mid-air.

"That's a new one," he said to himself. He could fly. Or, at least he could hover. What had happened to him? How could his powers have changed so radically just by taking in a few cosmic molecules? He heard the lock of the door behind him click. He looked up and reached out for the roof of the building. It was not that far away from him. He easily glided upward and scrambled onto the surface. Yes, he could fly.

"Who's out here?" a gruff voice called from below. Lucas peered over the edge of the building and saw a large black man wearing a white apron covered in blood looking around the alley. He stayed quiet until the man gave up and went back inside. He decided that it was time to go. He leaped off of the roof, expecting to drop to the ground. He found that he was still hanging in the air. He stuck out a foot and pointed it to the ground and he slowly glided downward until he touched the hard surface.

He made his way out of the alley and stepped out into the streets of Metropolis. It was still early. Most of the people had not started making their way to work yet. There were a few cars passing by. There were several yellow cabs parked along the side of the street waiting for someone to climb in. He saw a small market across the street and made his way over. His stomach was growling and he knew that he was ready for breakfast.

The little store did not offer much in the way of breakfast fare. He could not find any pastries but there were a few hot dogs rolling up and down on a cooker. From the looks of them they had been there since the day before. He got one anyway and put in a bun, covering it with mustard. If he could get shot and have bullets bounce off of him, surely he would survive a tainted hot dog.

As he stood at the counter, chomping on the rubbery meat and stale bread, he happened to realize that he did not have any money. He frantically searched the jeans that he had taken from the thug the night before. He sighed in relief when he found a five dollar bill crumpled into one of the pockets. He lay the money down and collected his change. As he turned to leave he happened a glance at the rack of newspapers behind the counter. The headline caught his eye.

"DID LEXCORP'S ALIEN SAVE DAMZEL IN DISTRESS?" it read. He grunted through the mouthful of food and pointed at the paper. The clerk reached over and picked one up and gave it to him. Lucas gave him some change and left.

He shoved the last piece of the hot dog into his mouth and opened up the paper. The article had been written by the Chloe Sullivan from this world. That Anya girl had been right about her. She was a star reporter in this universe. The article was more than what the headline led the reader to believe. It started out telling her story about how she had been attacked the night before and that a naked man that looked exactly like the captive alien from LexCorp. The man had displayed special powers. He had been able to deflect a bullet, throw lightening from his hands, and had left the scene at supersonic speed. But then she went on to say that a call to Lex Luthor had confirmed that the alien was still in their possession. Then the article began to question who the strange visitor was and even speculated that the Earth was being inhabited by a race of alien beings.

"She's a tabloid journalist?" he asked to no one in particular.

"The Daily Star is not a tabloid," a voice called from around the corner. "But it's no Daily Planet. This world doesn't have one of those."

Lucas turned and saw Anya standing a few feet behind him. He held up the newspaper.

"How did you know that this was going to happen?" he asked.

"Relax, Clark," she said.

"I'm not Clark," he replied. "My name is Lucas."

"I'm sorry," Anya said. "I've met you several times. In most other worlds your name is either Clark or Kal. I took a chance."

"You didn't answer my question," Lucas said.

She nodded. "I'm not a psychic or anything. But I've been doing this long enough that I've developed a knack for knowing how it all works out. Are you new?"

"New?" Lucas asked in confusion.

"You cross over," she said. "Right? You're like me."

"You can go to other worlds?" Lucas asked. "You have a projector?"

Anya smiled. "Let's start over. Are you from a parallel dimension?"

"Yes," Lucas said. "But I don't know which one. There's so many of them."

"How did you get here?"

"I was in an accident," he said. "I don't remember much about it. But I was scattered all over the multiverse and I had to pull myself back together. I've got a lot of holes in my memory now."

Anya nodded. "Your molecules were scattered and you survived. That's amazing. Are you from Krypton like your counterparts that I've met?"

"I don't know," Lucas said. "I have memories of being told that I'm from another world. But I can't really remember if it really happened or not. I have powers."

"I know," she said. "I've been watching you since you entered this universe."

"How would you have known that I was here?" Lucas asked. "I wasn't even in a solid form when I got here."

"Where I come from you have to be watching for visitors from other universes," she replied.

"And where is that?" Lucas said, taking another look at the points on her ears. "What world has humans with pointy ears?"

"I'm from Earth Twelve," she said. "But I'm from the year 2527."

"You're from the future?"

She nodded. "About five hundred twenty years from now. What Earth are you from?"

"I don't know," Lucas replied. "I didn't get to study the charts before I got blasted out of my body."

Anya reached down to the belt around her waist and opened a small compartment in the large yellow buckle. A small device came out. "Hold still," she said. A thin blue ray of light came out of it and ran from his head down to his feet. The light went away and the device went back into her belt.

"You're from Earth Ninety-Seven," she said. "I've never been there."

"I don't remember a whole lot about it," Lucas said. "I know that I wasn't a good person when I was there."

"Really?" Anya said, her eyebrows going up in surprise. "Wow! I've met many versions of you and none of them have been the villain. They've always been the hero."

"I can't really claim to be either," Lucas said. "I know that I did some bad things before my accident. But what happened to me has changed me. I don't know if it's permanent or not. I may get my memory back and go on a killing spree."

"After that rescue last night I'd say it's a safe bet that you've made hero status," Anya said. There was a small beeping noise and she looked down at her belt buckle. A tiny screen revealed itself on its surface. "Oh no!"

"What is it?" Lucas asked.

"I thought that I'd gotten away from it for a while," Anya said. "Gods! I just wanted to rest!"

"Anya!" Lucas said. "What are you talking about?"

"The field that separates the dimensions is fluctuating," Anya said. "That's how I knew when you were coming in."

"So someone is crossing over from another world?" Lucas asked.

"Judging from the size of the disturbance I would guess that it's not just someone," she said. "This is the Anti-monitor."

"The anti-_what_?" he asked.

"I don't have time to explain," Anya said. "He's too close! It's too late to stop him! I've got to get out of here!"

"Anya!" Lucas screamed. He took in a breath to speak again when a huge explosion tore through the air. He looked up and saw beams of red light being emitted by the sky itself and ripping through the cityscape of Metropolis. Entire buildings were bursting into flames and quickly being reduced to ash.

"Get out of here, Lucas!" Anya yelled. "I don't want to have to watch you die again!"

Lucas did not think about the next thing that he did. He reached out and grabbed Anya by the waist and leapt into the air. He continued to climb higher and higher into the sky as the beams came down and found the place where they had just been standing. Lucas looked around him and saw that the place where Metropolis had been only a few seconds before was now occupied by nothing but a huge crater that was growing rapidly. It would only be a few minutes before the entire state of Kansas was wiped off the face of this Earth.

"We have to do something!" Lucas said, dodging the red beams as they tried to do to him and Anya what they had done to the city.

"It's too late, Lucas," Anya said. "If we're going to survive we have to get out of this universe!"

Then he saw it. The clouds parted and Lucas could see a huge monster of a creature standing in the sky. He was covered in some kind of red armor that Lucas could not pierce with his x-ray vision. He tried blasting it with some heat, but the thing did not even look at him.

"Is that it?" Lucas asked.

"Yes!" Anya answered. "That's the Anti-Monitor. He's the devourer of worlds."

Just as she said it a plate on the monster's chest slid away and revealed what looked like a black hole. Lucas could already feel himself being pulled toward it and looked on in amazement and horror as entire trees and buildings were pulled up from the ground and sucked into it.

Lucas reached for the sky and he and Anya sailed into space. Anya pressed a button on her belt and surrounded them with a force field. Lucas did not figure that he needed it for protection, but she probably needed it to be able to breathe in the vacuum. They turned and watched as the entire planet slowly melted away as it was pulled bit by bit into the monster's chest. Then he could feel it tugging at him again as other planets and stars were being helplessly pulled away from the path that they had been on since the beginning of time. This thing was reducing the entire universe and consuming it.

"Cross over, Lucas!" she said. "I can go without you, but I won't leave you behind!"

"I don't know how!" Lucas said.

"The same way you got here," she replied. "Just think about it and go!"

Lucas closed his eyes and concentrated. He leaned forward and shot out into open space. The fabric of the universe opened and allowed him and Anya to exit just as all of that world's existence imploded around them.

End of chapter two


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Earth Seventy-Four

8:52 A.M.

Clark bounded down the stairs and into the kitchen. A couple of years ago he would have been greeted by the warm smell of bacon and eggs cooking on the stove while his mom ran around the kitchen. This morning, though, the house was empty except for him. His mom was in Metropolis for the next couple of days to prepare for a fundraiser. Her life had gotten a lot busier since she had taken on the mantle of state senator in his father's place. But she was good at it. And Clark could tell that she really enjoyed it.

In the meantime, the upkeep of the family farm had fallen into his hands. He had never had any desire to become a farmer. As a matter of fact there were a couple of occasions where he had told his dad that he had no interest in taking up the family yoke. He wanted to do something more with his life. He had an origin that was uniquely different from the rest of humanity. He had been sent to this world as the sole survivor of a dead world. He could not believe that his ancestors would want there only legacy to be worried with fence mending and hay bailing.

But, even though he was Kal-El of Krypton, he was a Kent first. At least that was the priority that he held in his mind. And he knew that being a Kent was something special as well. People in the community looked up to his family. Jonathan Kent had been a hard working, decent, honest, and caring man. And that kind of life had a way of lingering with people.

Clark opened a box of cereal and poured himself a bowl. He added the milk and leaned back against the counter to eat it. He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was nearly nine o'clock. He had promised Chloe that he would meet her for lunch in Metropolis. He still had plenty of time. He knew that he should probably take the truck, but he could run into the city in just a few minutes.

He sighed. Chloe had said that she just wanted to meet with him to talk. He had not seen her in nearly a week. That was when they had returned from the mirror universe where he had met Lucas Luthor, the alternate version of himself that had been raised by Lionel Luthor. When they had gotten home she had barely wanted to talk to him. She said something about being in the same apartment where their alternate selves were making love had weirded her out. He supposed that he could understand. He had given her the space that she needed and now she wanted to see him. She could say that she just wanted to talk, but he knew that she wanted one of two things. She either wanted to know what the latest word was from Green Arrow, or she wanted to hound him into stopping Lex and Lana's wedding. Neither of which he was in the mood to talk about.

What he did want to do was to go back to LuthorCorp and talk to Professor Hamilton. When they had crossed back into this dimension the professor had taken the serum that Chloe had given him and injected Clark without any question. It had saved Clark's life, just like it had the first time that he had taken it. But he had spent the next few days tormented over the fate of Lucas. His double in that world was a dangerous man. He had killed and rampaged to advance his own agenda, which Clark supposed would have eventually led to world domination. But something had stayed with him after Lucas had sacrificed himself to save him. He had some memories that had belonged to Lucas, including the things that he was thinking about at the moment that he had vanished. At the moment of his disappearance he was not thinking about vengeance or death at all. He was only thinking about perseverance. He wanted to help. It could possibly be the only time that those sorts of thoughts had gone through his mind in his entire life.

Something else had weighed on him during the past few days. When he lay down at night to rest and he closed his eyes, he seemed to see a vast expanse of dark blue clouds. In the distance he could almost see the outline of thousands of planets that all looked like Earth. And he could not feel his own body. It was almost as if he himself was one of the clouds that he saw. Then he would wake up, and he had not even realized that he had been asleep. He had had dreams before that had frightened him, but this one was different in so many ways. The main thing that disturbed him was that the feeling that he got while he was having it was the same one that he had gotten the night that his mind had merged with Lucas'.

He washed the bowl quickly and walked outside. He decided to take the truck to Metropolis. It was a nice morning and he did not really mind taking the extra time. He figured that he would still get to town early.

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"I knew that you were going to hit me with this," Clark said, feigning annoyance. His smile showed that he was glad that Chloe cared about him so much.

"Clark," she said. "You two belong together. It was meant to be. You're like Romeo and Juliet. Clark Kent and Lana Lang are meant for one another. The universe has spoken."

They had met at the Daily Planet and walked down the street together to a diner that was full of people. The downtown lunch crowd in Metropolis was always huge. Clark hoped that there was enough bustle in the room that no one would overhear their conversation. He kept an ear out to hear if anyone commented on anything that they were saying. When the waitress came he ordered a tuna sandwich and chips and Chloe ordered a salad and water. She left and he responded to her comment.

"That's not the way I see it, Chloe," he said. "What about what we saw last week? Lex wound up with her over there, too."

"But in that world he was the white bread farm boy," she said. "And he was still the Kent son. Maybe she's destined to be with whoever is playing that role."

"What do you want me to do, Chloe?" Clark asked. "Walk in there next weekend and wait for the minister to do the whole speak now or forever hold your peace deal? What then? I just jump up and say 'Don't marry Lex'?"

"That's a perfect plan," Chloe said with a smile. "Actually, what I was thinking was that you simply have a little talk with her. Maybe you could tell her a few secrets that you've been keeping from her?"

"You want me to tell Lana my secret?" Clark asked.

"Why not, Clark?" she replied. "It's not like she's some stranger. You've been in love with her your entire life."

Clark nodded. "I guess I just still have that weariness of telling anybody that my dad instilled in me."

"It's good to keep it close to home," Chloe replied. "If the wrong person found out it could ruin your life. The government would love to get their hands on a real live alien."

"Don't call me that," Clark said, his voice low and his eyes looking away from her. Chloe could tell that she had hurt his feelings.

"I didn't mean it like that, Clark," she said. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he replied. "I guess it's true. But if I told Lana who I really was, wouldn't I be risking Lex finding out as well?"

"You don't think that she'd tell him?" Chloe asked.

"She could," he replied. "I've lied to her enough over the years. Maybe she puts more trust in Lex now than she does me."

"That's ridiculous," Chloe said. "She still loves you. If she didn't then she wouldn't care so much."

"Not to mention the fact that if I told her that I came to Earth during the meteor shower then she might blame me for the death of her parents."

"Clark," Chloe said. "You came with the meteors. You didn't make them. And you're doing nothing more than making excuses. Are you sure that you don't want to tell her because of how she might react? Or are you just afraid of making a commitment to her?"

"I've already hurt her so many times, Chloe."

She nodded. "The wedding is in a week, Clark. Don't wait too long. You just might regret it for the rest of your life. And we have no idea how long your life span is."

Clark smiled at her. The waitress returned with their food and they sat chewing in silence for several minutes. He finally spoke up.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

She swallowed and then took in a gulp of water. "Talk about what?"

"About why you've been avoiding me for a week," he said.

"I haven't been avoiding you. I've been busy."

"You've never been too busy for your friends."

She nodded and set down her glass. "That was a pretty big ordeal."

"Right," Clark said with a slight nod. "But I'm the one that rescued you. It doesn't make any sense that you didn't want to talk to me when we got back. Whatever our alternate versions' relationship was, it shouldn't affect our's. They're our doubles but that doesn't mean that they're us."

"I know that, Clark," she said. "But you know that I've had a crush on you for years. It's only been a few months since I started seeing Jimmy and I'm finally starting to get over those feelings."

"I understand," Clark said. "And you know that I care about you a great deal."

"But only as a friend," Chloe said. "I know."

"You're my best friend," Clark said. "You're the most important person in my life right now."

"I know," Chloe said. "But you just don't know what it's like to hear your own voice as your double is making love to someone that you know so well."

"There are billions of worlds in the multiverse," Clark said. "You and I may be married on some of them and we may not even know one another on others. But on this one, we know what we mean to each other."

She nodded. "I'm sorry that I've been giving you the cold shoulder. You know that I wasn't mad or anything. I really do appreciate what you did for me. You nearly died to come and bring me back to this world."

"I'd do anything for you," Clark said. "You know that. Right?" She nodded again. He could see a tear starting to well up in her eye and he decided to change the subject. "Have you been able to get hold of Professor Hamilton?"

"Yes," she replied. "But I don't think that his priority is on repairing his projector and modifying it to look for Lucas."

"Why not?" Clark said. "That machine is a major discovery for a scientist of his level. It could make him huge. What could possibly be more important to him?"

"You," Chloe said.

Clark stared at her in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Did you tell him about your kryptonite weakness?" Chloe asked.

Clark's heart sank. "I told him that I was allergic to the meteor rocks. I had to or I would have been killed when I crossed over. The energy that the projector put out was charged with raw energy from the rocks."

"I know," she replied. "And he knows that the rocks have caused mutations in people in and around Smallville. But you're the first one to have a weakness to their radiation. He's been doing all sorts of experiments and coming up with theories as to why your cells react to their proximity."

"Are any of his theories close to the truth?" Clark asked.

"Yeah," Chloe said. "But not any that he's leaning toward."

"I had a feeling that this would happen," he said. "But I had no choice."

"I know," Chloe said. "And I really doubt that he'll do anything with the information. After all, he works for Lionel Luthor, and he's kept your secret for over a year."

"Yeah," Clark said. "But I really don't know what his ultimate goal is. I still believe that he's trying to stay close to my mom because he wants a senator in his pocket. Imagine if I become a costumed vigilante like Green Arrow one day. He'd probably like having a superhero in his pocket, too."

Chloe laughed. "I can imagine you running around in some skin tight outfit saving kittens from trees. Would you have a cape?"

"I'm being serious," Clark said. And then he started to laugh. "Maybe I'd call myself the Kryptonian Avenger."

"Or Superguy," Chloe replied. They both laughed. After they finished their lunch they argued briefly over who was going to pay the check. Clark won, even though Chloe did say that she was the one that invited him. He stepped over to the counter and paid. They walked outside together and said their goodbyes and Clark climbed back into his truck.

"Where are you going now?" Chloe said. "Back to the farm?"

"I was thinking about heading over to LuthorCorp and have a little chat with Hamilton," Clark said.

"Clark, that's not a good idea," Chloe said. "There are no security cameras in the lab. If you get into an argument with him he could say that you did something to him and it would be your word against his." He nodded and sighed. "Why don't you call Luthor?"

"Lionel Luthor?" Clark asked. "But I told you that…"

"Whatever he may or may not be planning for some point in the future can be dealt with at that time. But right now he may be able to get Hamilton off of your trail. The professor is a good man, Clark. I don't believe that he would exploit you no matter what he found."

"I know that," Clark said. "But I'm afraid that someone else could see his research and they might exploit me."

"Be careful," Chloe said. "By the way, why did you drive? You could have run here in like three minutes."

"It's a nice day, Chloe," Clark said with a smile as he started up the truck. A few seconds later it was rumbling back toward Smallville.

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When the truck pulled into the driveway Clark immediately noticed that the front door to the house was open a few inches. He climbed out and quickly scanned the building with his x-ray vision. There was no sign of anyone inside. He looked around the rest of the area and saw three human skeletons crouched behind some hay bails in the barn. They looked like some pretty big guys.

"Who's in there?" he yelled. None of them moved. He stepped closer to the barn and called out again. "I know that someone's there! Come out, now!"

The three figures stood up and ran forward, directly toward the barn's wall. The wall exploded into splinters of wood and nails that came raining down all around him. He instinctively covered his head even though he knew that the falling debris could not hurt him. When he looked up again he saw three men, each wearing a white skin tight suit that was all in one piece. They looked a lot like something that a scuba diver would wear. But their clothing was far from being the most unusual thing about the men's appearance. Each and every one of them looked as if they were an exact double of him. It was almost as if he were looking into three mirrors.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Are you Clark Kent?" the one on the left asked. It was strange to hear the words in his own voice.

"Yeah," Clark replied.

"Target identified," one of the others said. He zipped forward at super speed, but Clark dodged to his left and left the other man grasping at thin air. He balled up his fist and leaned in toward him. His punch connected with the invaders jaw and sent him hurling through the air. Immediately he felt like a brick wall had hit him in the back. One of the other doubles had run at him and shoved his shoulder into his back. Clark went down, his face scraping the dirt.

"Adam," one of them said. The first one that had spoken looked up as if responding to his name. "Do not hurt the target."

"I will not, Caleb," he replied. He turned to Clark. "We do not wish to hurt you. You must come with us."

"I'm not going anywhere," Clark said. "What are you? Are you doubles from a parallel world?"

"We can not answer your questions, Clark Kent," Adam said. "Come with us and all will be explained."

Clark got back on his feet and sucker punched Adam in the stomach. The man bent over in pain. Clark cracked him in the face with his knee and he fell over onto the ground, clutching his nose that was pouring blood. He heard one of the others running up behind him. He whirled around and kicked into the air. His foot made contact with Caleb's chest. Clark felt a gust of wind come out of the man's lungs as he, too, fell to the ground. Clark turned to face the last one.

"Brice!" Adam called out. "Use it!"

"We were told that it would be difficult to acquire you," Brice told Clark. "We did not wish to use this." He reached behind him and pulled out a small box. He opened it and Clark did not have to see the meteor rock to know what it was. He felt the burning and the nausea that he had experience on a number of occasions. He fell to the ground. He looked around as Adam and Caleb got up and joined the one that they had called Brice. The rock was not affecting them at all. However much they looked like him, they were obviously not his exact double. They were immune to the rocks effects.

Brice reached into his belt and pulled out another device. He leveled it at Clark and pressed a button. There was a short whistling noise followed by a dull thud. Clark looked down and saw a tiny dart sticking out of his chest. Connected to the needle was a vial with a green liquid that quickly emptied itself into his body. Almost immediately Clark lost all feeling in his entire body. He was still fully conscious, but he could not move, not even to speak. "I have injected you with a powerful neurotoxin laced with kryptonite. You will be unable to resist us any further."

Adam and Caleb looked down at Clark and nodded. Caleb pulled his foot back and made as if he were about to kick him in the ribs. Adam put out his hand.

"Stop, brother," he said. "The fight is over." Caleb withdrew himself and calmed down. Adam turned back to the barn and pressed a button on his belt buckle. There was a strand of shimmering energy that came out of it and collected in mid-air in front of them. It formed a circle which quickly turned into a hole in the air. There was a roaring sound coming from within the hole and the wind picked up, almost as if it were trying to pull things toward it. Adam motioned to the other two and they walked near the hole. When they had gotten close enough to put their arm through it they seemed to shrink in size and allow themselves to be sucked inside. "Do not worry, Clark Kent of Earth Seventy-Four. We will not hurt you unless we are ordered to do so."

That did not make him feel much better. He had never felt this helpless before. Even the times that he had lost his powers he had still been able to do things. He could not move at all and it was terrifying.

Adam picked him up and threw him over his shoulder. Together they went through the hole and out of this world.

End of chapter three.

Note:

I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. This may turn out to be a pretty long fic because of the fact that there are two stories going on here. In the next chapter we'll find out what happened to Lucas and Anya. Please r&r…I love getting reviews, even if they are anonymous. And don't get your hope up for a happy ending. Remember that this is part two of a three part series. Everyone knows the rule about act 2 of a trilogy. Anyway, until next time.

Kal-El2k7


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Uncharted Earth

Unknown Time

Lucas felt energy flow out of his body and the fabric of space seemed to open and swallow him. Just as he was passing out of the reality behind him he felt the entire universe fall in on itself. Then there was a silent explosion. The force of the shock wave hit him in the back like a tidal wave and shoved him through. He fell between the worlds. There was a field of dark blue all around him and he could see thousands of other Earths. His entire field of vision was filled with other universes. He looked back to where they had just come from and watched the Earth vanish in the explosion that he had just witnessed. He began to lose consciousness.

"Lucas!" Anya was saying. "I can't hold this force field much longer. You have to open another window. We can't exist here. We're not in the fabric of reality."

But even as Lucas faded away, he knew that only part of what she said was true. If the force field fell, she would most likely cease to exist. But he was pretty sure that he would be fine. His body now contained some of the very molecules that surrounded them in this place. He felt certain that one of his new powers was that he could exist between the universes.

But he could not just pass out and leave Anya to fade away. He blinked his eyes and managed to clear his head a little. He had started to lose his grip on her so he pulled her close to him. He angled his body toward one of the earths that surrounded them and slowly began to pull back space so that they could glide into that universe. After a few minutes all of the other planets faded away and were replaced with the deep dark vacuum of space. Only that one planet remained. Finally, he passed out and they plummeted into the atmosphere.

When he opened his eyes he found himself lying on a deserted beach. There was nothing for miles on either side of him but white sand and the ocean lay out before him. The waves were lapping the shore a few yards away. He looked around and found Anya sitting on a rock close by. He had taken the buckle from her belt and was studying a small screen that had been produced from it.

"Are we okay?" he asked, pulling himself into a sitting position.

"We survived," Anya said, not looking at him.

"Where are we now?"

"You managed to get us to another earth. It's not on any of my charts. I guess no one has ever been here before. If they have they didn't record it. It doesn't seem to be inhabited. I'm not finding any civilizations in my readings."

"What does that mean?" Lucas asked. "Could you please explain what's going on? What was that thing back there?"

"I told you," Anya said. "It's called the Anti-Monitor. It converts matter into antimatter and then it consumes it for energy."

"And it ate the whole planet?" Lucas asked.

Anya shook her head. "It consumed the entire universe. There's nothing left of it."

"So everyone that lived there is dead?"

"In a way," she answered. "It isn't so much that they're dead as it is that they no longer exist." She got up and clipped the buckle back onto her costume. "Thank you for saving me, Lucas. Goodbye."

Lucas was up in a flash. She reached for a button on her buckle but by the time that her hand had reached it Lucas had snatched it off of her again. He stood in front of her, holding it up.

"You owe me," Lucas said. "I want the story."

"What story?" Anya asked.

"Where did that thing come from?" he said. "And who are you?"

"I told you who I was," Anya said.

"You told me that you were from the future of another world," Lucas said. "That doesn't explain jack!"

"Please," Anya said. "I have to go. He'll follow me here."

"Then he'll find us both," Lucas said. "Look, Anya, I'm pretty new to the whole superhero thing. A week ago I was only concerned with hostile takeovers and then I became a killer. I can go from hero to relapse real fast."

"I'm not sure of how good you are," Anya said, a hint of fear in her eyes.

"Neither am I," Lucas said. "But I do know that if I squeeze your little toy then you'll have to rely on me to get you off of this rock. And since I haven't mastered my interdimensional powers yet, I'm liable to put us down on some volcano world or something. So let's talk."

"Fine," Anya said, having a seat on the rock. "You asked me why I had points on my ears if I was a human. Well, I lied. I'm only half human. I'm also half Maltusian."

"Maltusian?" Lucas asked. "What planet is that?"

"It's called Maltus," she replied. "And we're the ones that are responsible for the creation of the multiverse."

Lucas arched his eyebrows. "You have my attention."

"In this century Maltus is only a little more advanced than Earth. But in the time that I come from it is the most advanced planet in the galaxy. We know this because of our machine that was invented by my grandfather. With it our scientists were able to view any place in the universe that they desired. We used it to discover countless new planets that had been unknown to anyone before that time.

"After the government of Maltus bought his machine, my grandfather began to tamper with the design. He hoped to invent a similar machine that would enable us to view even more. He perfected it only a few days before his death. It was a machine that could be used to not only see other worlds, but other times.

"My father took up the mantle of my grandfather's life's work. He began to look back and forth through time. He witnessed numerous major events on thousands of worlds. He saw the crucifixion of Christ, the great battles of Thanagaria, and even the destruction of your home planet of Krypton."

"How did you know…?" Lucas started.

She smiled. "I've met you before. Remember. Besides, I've used the machine myself. I saw the Kents find you during the meteor shower."

"I wasn't found by the Kents," Lucas reminded her. "I'm a Luthor."

"I'm sorry," she said. Then she continued her story. "My father finally decided that he wanted to witness the creation of the universe. He did so, but at a great cost. Just the fact that his machine disrupted the fabric of time during the creation caused the universe to splinter. There had only been one universe at that time, but his interference caused it to fracture into many different realities. In turn, each one of those caused even more to break off. Within minutes there were billions of alternate dimensions. Each of them beginning with the creation and then heading down various paths to become what they are now."

"That doesn't tell me who this Anti-Monitor is," Lucas said.

"One of the Earths creation was different that the rest," Anya said. "It was made of antimatter, which causes destruction when it is in contact with normal matter. That world broke off of another world and they became polar opposites. They were matter and antimatter…yin and yang. On one world there was a great hero that called himself the Monitor."

"And in the antimatter universe there was an Anti-Monitor," Lucas said.

"Well, he didn't call himself that," Anya said. "We gave him that name because he is the exact opposite of his counterpart. Where the Monitor saved his world, the Anti-Monitor destroyed his."

"His own planet?" Lucas asked.

Anya nodded. "He's pure evil. He lives off of energy that is stored in antimatter. He can get it from normal matter and so he crosses the dimensional boundaries and devourers everything. His conversion causes a chain reaction and an entire universe is gone in minutes. He's erased thousands of worlds from existence. In my time he's become so powerful that stopping him has become hopeless."

"And since more parallel worlds pop into existence all of the time…," Lucas started.

"There is no end to how strong he can get," Anya finished. "He took my world in seconds."

"He destroyed your world?" Lucas asked.

Anya nodded. "My father's lab had just finished perfecting that," she said as she nodded at the device that Lucas had taken from her. "It's called a utilizer. It can do a lot of things. But most notably it can take a person through time or across the dimensional boundary. He just happened to be experimenting with it when the Anti-Monitor attacked. My father slipped into another dimension just as his ceased to exist."

"So, he came back in time to try and stop him at a weaker point?" Lucas asked. "Why didn't he go back to the beginning of time and stop the whole thing from starting."

"Because the creation is much too delicate to tamper with," Anya said. "He could have gone back and caused an even worse chain of events or he could have caused the universe to not be created to begin with. He couldn't have risked that. Eventually, he lost track of him. He settled on another world and met a human woman and they had me. A few days before he died he told me the story that I've just told you and gave me the utilizer. I've been continuing ever since."

"So, what's your plan now?" Lucas asked.

"As soon as my utilizer completes its charging cycle I'm going to go and find him," she said. "I've tracked him many times and I always lose track of him. I never find him until I happen to be in a world that he attacks."

"Have you ever stopped an attack?" Lucas asked.

She nodded. "A couple. A blast of tachyons will push him out of the universe. It disorients him. By the time he regains his composure he moves on to another world. The only downside is that you have to know where he's headed in order to get everything together to create a strong enough stream. In my time we had weapons that used tachyons. However, in this century your people think that they're just something from a comic book."

"I'm stumped," Lucas said. "You're talking to a spoiled rich kid. What's a tachyon?"

She smiled. "They're subspace particles that can move through time. They also exist in all dimensions at the same time. It's what binds the multiverse. The utilizer uses them. It creates a field of them around your body and allows you to exist between the worlds."

"Apparently they let you breath in space as well," Lucas said, looking down at the object.

"No," Anya said. "That's the force field. It can create one of those, too. It also has every world that my people charted during before my father escaped programmed into its memory."

"How are you going to find him?" Lucas asked.

"Time moves a little slower for him than it does for us," Anya said. "It's because of the way time moves on the world that he came from. He just fed. So he probably won't need to consume again for three days. I can find go between the worlds and follow his trail. If I can figure out which world he's headed to I can get there first and prepare a tachyon pulse."

"And that will do what?" Lucas asked.

"It will stop him from consuming that universe," Anya said.

"To hell with that, Anya," Lucas said. "You need to kill that thing!"

"I don't know how, Lucas," Anya said. "There hasn't been a lot of scientific study on this thing. As far as I know, you and I are the only ones that even know that he exists. Everyone that sees him is gone a second later."

Lucas looked off at the ocean in thought. There had to be a way to stop this monster. If it was allowed to continue on the way that it was going it would eventually reach his world and destroy it. Then it could go on and destroy the world that Clark was from. He turned back to Anya and saw that she was staring at him with questioning eyes.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I told you that I've met Kal-El quite a few times on different worlds," she said. He nodded in agreement. "I've never heard you say anything like that before."

"Like what?" he replied.

"Like when you said that the Anti-Monitor had to be killed. All of your counterparts have a self-imposed rule against killing anyone."

"So you want me try and stop this thing without killing it?" he asked. "Didn't you just say that the tachyon blast was only a temporary fix?"

"I didn't say that it shouldn't be killed," she said. "I'm only pointing out how different you are."

"You don't have to point out my differences from Clark Kent," Lucas said. "I'm well aware. I was raised as a Luthor. Remember? I didn't even know that I was from another planet until last week."

"I have to warn you," Anya said, getting up from her rock. "I've seen five of your counterparts take this thing on. It killed three of them. One of them was unable to escape from a universe that it consumed."

"What about the other one?" Lucas asked.

"I don't know what happened to him," she said. "Are you sure that you want to help me?"

Lucas nodded and handed her utilizer back to her. "I've got a lot of sins to be forgiven for. Maybe if I save a few billion people from being wiped out I can make up for the two that I took. What's your plan?"

Anya pressed a button on the device and a holographic image unfolded in the air around them. All around him there were drawings of the earth popping into existence. Each one had a number beneath it. The first thing that he noticed was that several of the Earths were in clusters of three to five with a large space between the groups.

"This is a representation of every Earth that my people discovered as well as the ones that my father and I charted since he came to this century," Anya said. She pointed at one of them and it vanished into a puff of digital pixels. "That's the one that we just left. It will most likely take him three of our days to reach another world."

"Why are they in groups?" Lucas asked.

"They tend to be attracted to worlds that are closely related to them," Anya said. "The world that we're on now would be drawn toward another world that is not inhabited. We were never able to figure out why they did that. It makes it easier to travel between the worlds in a cluster."

"Easier for whom?" Lucas asked.

"Anyone," Anya said. "You and I, for one. And the Anti-Monitor of course. This is your world." She pointed at an Earth that looked like it was off in the distance. It seemed to grow larger as it drew nearer. "It is one of three worlds in a cluster. There is your's, Earth Seventy-Four, and Earth S."

"Earth S?" Lucas asked. "Why is it named that?"

"I don't know," Anya said. "My father had a strange numbering system. Some of them were numbers and then there was Earth S, Earth M, Earth Prime, and so on." She looked closer at the three Earths that she had highlighted. "That's odd."

"What?" Lucas asked. "What's odd?"

"There's a strange signal coming from your cluster," she said. "It's like a field of some kind of energy that's surrounding all three realities."

"I've got to get back to my world," he said. And he lifted up into the air.

"Lucas!" Anya called. She jabbed at the utilizer and it sent her soaring up after him. She caught up with him in the sky and paced him. "What about the Anti-Monitor?"

"I'll deal with it after I find out what's going on," Lucas said.

"But another Earth will be gone by then," she answered.

"Look, Anya," he said, slowing his rate and looking at her. "My world is first. Okay? I'll help you save the multiverse when I get back!"

"I'll go with you," she said.

"Why?" Lucas asked.

"Because every time I find you I lose you again," she said. "And I don't want to lose you, Kal-El."

Lucas stopped his flight and hovered in the sky. Below him was the uninhabited world that he had just left and above him was the stark darkness of space. He looked at Anya and saw what she was feeling in her eyes. She had fallen in love with some other version of him and he had died. Now, she had found him.

"Anya," Lucas said. "I'm not him."

"I know that," Anya said. "But I don't want to lose you just the same. I'll go with you to your world and help you do whatever it is that you have to do. Then you can help me save the rest of the multiverse."

Lucas nodded. "Okay." He reached out and took her by the hand and her force field enveloped both of them. Then they shot up into space and vanished from that reality.

End of chapter four.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

In Between Worlds

Time: Nonexistent

Professor Hamilton was experiencing an extreme form of vertigo. He fell back into a chair and clutched his throat where the clone had grabbed him. It took him a moment to regain his breath.

"I'm sorry about that, Emil," Wentworth said, still standing next to the computer. He had allowed the clone to choke him for about ten seconds before he had ordered it to let him down. "I was afraid that its first actions would be hostile. Thank you for stepping in for me."

"That thing could have killed me," Hamilton said.

"I hardly think so," Wentworth said. "They wouldn't do anything to anyone unless I tell them to." He turned back to the clone. "Adam, wake up your brothers. I'm going to need you, Brice, and Caleb to cross over in a few minutes." Adam stepped out of his cylinder and nodded. Wentworth went to the machine that was emitting the field around them and pulled out three white jumpsuits from a storage compartment in the bottom. "And put these on. You can't go running around naked."

Hamilton looked around. His entire laboratory had vanished. All that remained were the objects that had been in the room when his counterpart had switched on his toy. He looked down at where the floor should have been below the chair that he was sitting in. There was nothing there. He could only see the dark blue clouds that surrounded them and the outlines of the infinite number of worlds leading off into the distance.

"Emil," Luthor said from beside him. "How is all of this possible? If these planets were actually in such close proximity to one another they would cause massive earthquakes and flooding."

"We're not a part of reality, Mr. Luthor," Hamilton whispered back. "These Earths are not actually here. We're seeing a physical representation of the many different levels in the multiverse. It's a way for our brains to explain to us what our eyes are seeing."

"You really are the smartest Hamilton that I've ever met," Wentworth said from his seat in front of the computer. Until then he had given no clue that he had been listening. He wheeled around in his chair and faced the two men seated behind him. "Lionel, you are currently not a member of any reality anywhere in the multiverse. I have taken us out of your world and created a pocket universe. We are in our own little world here. Look behind you.

Hamilton and Luthor turned around and saw the edge of the force field surrounding them open up. Through that opening they could see the lab at LuthorCorp that they had left a few moments before. There was no one in it and all of the furniture and equipment was gone. It had all been brought here with them.

"Is that…?" Hamilton started.

"That is your world," Wentworth replied. "That is known by the worlds that catalogue these things as Earth Ninety-Seven. It is in a cluster with two other similar worlds." Two more openings made themselves visible on either side of the one that they had been looking at. The one on the left looked like a small farm, probably somewhere nearby. There was a farmhouse and a barn. The other opening showed a city that looked a lot like Metropolis. Wentworth pointed at the farm. "That is Earth Seventy-Four. The other one is Earth S. They are both very similar to your world and so the three of them co-exist. Most people think that parallel universes cluster because they are so similar. But the fact is that the cluster holds them together. If one of them were to be destroyed, the other two would follow suit. They feed off of one another."

"Is that what you plan to do?" Hamilton asked. "Are you going to destroy them?"

"Of course not," Wentworth said. "Emil, I am originally from Earth S myself. Why would I want to destroy my own world?"

"I'm sure that I don't know," Hamilton said. "Why would you kidnap us?"

"Oh, that's simple," Wentworth said. "For your clones of course." He stepped closer to the portal that led to the farm and peered through it. "He'll be here in a moment." He turned to the bank of clones behind him. "Adam! Brice! Caleb! Come here."

Three of the Lucas clones stepped around the computer terminal and stood at attention in front of Wentworth. They were all wearing the skintight jumpsuits that he had given them. Hamilton was overjoyed to see his creations in motion for the first time while being terrified at what they might be being used for.

"You're going to Earth Seventy-Four," he said. "Your target is Clark Kent."

"Will the target be eliminated?" one of the clones asked.

"No," Wentworth said. "I want him brought back here. You will know the target because he looks exactly like you. But be careful. He has powers similar to your's. He is susceptible to this." He handed one of them a lead box that Hamilton assumed contained a meteor rock. "It won't hurt you. When you have him overpowered, use this to render him unconscious." He handed a small device to another one. "He's on his way now. Go and hide and attack him. But don't hurt him. I need him alive and in one piece."

"Yes, Father," one of them said. With that they turned and ran into the portal. There was a shimmer and a flash as they crossed. Hamilton watched as they headed for the barn.

"It will take them some time," Wentworth said.

"What do you want with Clark?" Luthor asked.

"I suppose I should let you in on what's going on," Wentworth said. "Emil, are you married?"

"Yes," Hamilton replied. "My wife and I have been married for three years."

"Do you have any children?" Wentworth asked.

Hamilton shook his head. "No. We had a son. He was stillborn."

Wentworth smiled. "I already knew all of that about you." He tapped the large machine. "I told you that there are three worlds in a cluster that include this one. Each of those worlds has a version of you and me. On this world you have a wife with no child. On Earth Ninety-Seven our counterpart has a son but is a widower. And I lost my wife and three-year-old son last year when our house was robbed while I was out of town."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Luthor said. "But I don't understand what it has to do with us and this machine."

"I was out of town because I had perfected my projector," Wentworth said. "I had been exploring parallel worlds. I came home one night to find my wife and son lying in a pool of their own blood in my living room. I called the police. Of course they wanted to know where I was at the time of the murders. I tried to explain my invention to them like a fool. Before I knew what was happening I was placed under arrest. They thought that I had murdered my own family!

"I went to court and everything," Wentworth went on. "Finally, I was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection. But on my way to the penitentiary there was a bad accident and the driver was killed. The guard was pinned beneath the bus. Several of the prisoners, including myself, managed to get away. I don't know where they went, but I went directly back to my house and used my projector to escape that reality. I haven't been back to Earth S since."

"So, you're trying to find who killed your family?" Hamilton asked.

"That was what I wanted at first," Wentworth said. "After a while I decided that it was more important to get them back. Over the last year I discovered this device as well as you and your world. I decided that since you have my wife's counterpart and the other Hamilton has my son's counterpart that I could finally do something to restore my family."

"My god!" Luthor said. "You're going to kidnap them?"

"No, Lionel!" Wentworth said. "You old fool! I'm going to combine the three worlds. I'm going to use them to form one world in which my family is together."

"An amalgam universe?" Hamilton asked. "That would blend every person with their counterparts on the other two worlds. They would become completely different."

"They would be the same," Wentworth said. "They would have traits of all three."

"You don't know that!" Hamilton said. "They may cease to exist! The new amalgam universe may decide that there is no place for them!"

"I'm not killing anyone, Emil!" Wentworth said. "You should be happy. You'll get your son back."

"I'll lose my soul," Hamilton said. "It won't be me! It'll be part me, part him, and part you. The last one is the part that I'm afraid of. You could turn me into a killer."

"I could turn you into someone with some balls," Wentworth said. "In two worlds you work for this coward. I don't work for Luthor. In my world, Luthor is in prison."

"I'm not going to let you do this, Samson," Hamilton said. Wentworth pulled the pistol out and leveled it at him.

"You don't have a choice, Emil," he said. "I have a gun and ten metahumans at my disposal." He turned and tapped a few keys on the computer. The fourth clone opened his eyes and stepped out of the cylinder. "Darius, come here." The clone stepped around the console and stood before him. "Put on a jumpsuit, and then I want you to stand guard over my friends here. Make sure that they don't interrupt my plans."

Darius nodded and went to get a jumpsuit out of the compartment. Before he came back there was a loud popping noise and the other three clones came running back into their pocket universe carrying a sleeping Clark Kent.

"The target has been acquired," Adam said. They dropped Clark onto the ground. He opened his mouth and his eyes rolled around in their sockets.

"Very good, boys," Wentworth said. He sat down and worked at the computer for a minute. A slab of metal that looked like a makeshift surgical bed materialized beside the array. It was attached to the machine and had a lot of wires and other things attached to one end of it. Wentworth motioned to Adam and the clone picked up Clark and laid him on the slab, binding his arms and legs with shackles that had an eerie green glow to them.

"What have you done to him?" Luthor asked.

"Nothing," Wentworth said. "He's fine."

"Those shackles have kryptonite in them," Hamilton said. "They'll kill him."

"I assure you that there is only enough to keep him from escaping," the doctor replied. He attached two electrodes to either side of his head. Finally, he pressed a button on the array and Clark's eyes exploded open. "Hello, Clark."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Clark had a vague knowledge of being dragged and placed on a cold surface. He did not come to himself fully until he felt the jolt. It was like a joy buzzer that was a hundred times stronger than it should have been being pressed against his brain. He opened his eyes and saw Professor Hamilton looking down at him. But he looked different. He had a full beard and his hair was a little grayer than he remembered. He looked down at his hands and saw the shackles. He tried to break them but found that he could not move his arms. He turned back to the professor.

"Professor Hamilton?" he asked. "You betrayed me? Chloe warned me…"

"Hush, boy!" the man said. "I'm not Hamilton. I'm his counterpart from Earth S. My name is Samson Wentworth."

Clark looked around for the first time. Professor Hamilton and Lionel Luthor were both sitting in chairs not far from him. The three attackers that looked like him were standing close by. But all of that paled in comparison to his surroundings. There were no walls and there was no floor. It looked like they were standing in the middle of a thunderstorm cloud. Then he saw the planets, and he could see that all of them looked like Earth. Some were larger than others and one of them looked like a cube, but they were all Earth.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"You know Emil Hamilton and Lionel Luthor," Wentworth said.

"From my world?" Clark asked.

Wentworth shook his head. "No. They come from the world that you paid a visit to last week. The one where you met Lucas Luthor. Remember him?"

Clark nodded. "These guys are the clones of Lucas that Professor Hamilton made?"

Wentworth smiled. "You're bright. Maybe you'll understand my plan." He turned to Adam. "Take your brothers and go to Earth S. You have the same mission. This time the target's name is a fifteen year old boy named Billy. I don't know his last name. His cellular structure is in your programming so that you can find him." He grabbed a little black box from the table and handed it to Caleb. "This is a neuron-destabilizer. Use it on him so that he won't speak. I want him nice and quiet when you get back. Adam nodded. He, Brice, and Caleb ran out through the third portal. Wentworth turned back to Clark. "I was just explaining to my counterpart that I plan on merging your world with two other and created a new universe. How do you feel about that?"

"I feel like stopping you," Clark said.

"Which is exactly why I'm using you," Wentworth said.

"What are you on about?" Luthor asked. Wentworth leveled the pistol at Luthor and shot him in the arm. Luthor screamed and fell to the floor and Hamilton leaped to his side. Clark tried to get up but his arms were still frozen in place.

"I told you to shut up, Lionel," Wentworth said. "The next time you speak to me in that disrespectful tone of voice, I'll shoot you in the head. Now, to answer your question, I have to have a battery from each of the three worlds in order to merge them. It has to be a living person with DNA that is original to that world. I could have used three normal people. I even thought about using Emil and myself as two of the batteries. But then I thought I'd use Clark here so that he wouldn't be able to sneak in and save the say at the last second like he usually does."

"What happens to us when you merge everything?" Clark asked.

"It will create an amalgam universe," Wentworth said. "Everyone will merge with their counterparts from the other two worlds, creating one person."

"This is completely selfish," Hamilton said. "You were done wrong, Samson. You shouldn't have been accused of your wife's murder. But this is not the way to fix it!"

"This is the only way to get her back!" Wentworth said. "You can say anything you want, but you can't stop me. If you try, my boys with tear you apart before you ever get to me."

Clark did not understand everything that was being said. He did not know what Wentworth's wife had to do with anything. All he knew was that he had been pulled back into this whole parallel universe thing again, and this time there was more at stake than just his and Chloe's lives. This time there were entire universes full of humans and aliens that could lose their lives or their identities if something was not done.

What could he do? He was losing energy every second that these krypto bracelets held his hands and feet down. And even if he could get up, there were still seven clones in the room that apparently could not be hurt by kryptonite.

He laid his head back and closed his eyes. _Think, Clark! Think_

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

It was nearly an hour before the three Lucas clones bounded back into the pocket universe. Adam threw a young boy on the floor and looked at Wentworth.

"The target has been acquired, Father," he said.

"Good," Wentworth said. "You boys have done well. You can go and rest now." The clones walked back to their cylinders and stood with their arms folded, as if they were waiting for instructions.

Clark looked down at the boy as Wentworth turned him over onto his back. The boy was awake, but he could not move. Wentworth smiled.

"They used it on you," he said. "Didn't they, boy? You can't move and you can't talk. Good!" He tapped the keyboard until another slab materialized. He picked the boy up and threw him down onto the hard surface. He shackled his arms and legs and stuck the electrodes in his head.

"Who is that boy?" Hamilton asked.

"Just someone that I know from back home," Wentworth said. "He's the smartest boy in the country. He has an IQ that's through the roof. He'll make a great battery for my machine. Now, I've got someone from Earth Seventy-Four and someone from Earth S. All I need is someone from your world. Lionel, I believe that I will let you do the honors."

"Over my dead body!" Luthor said, still clutching his injured arm.

"No, I need you alive," Wentworth said. "I'll kill you afterward. How about that?"

"I'm not getting in that damned contraption and letting you ruin billions of lives," Luthor said.

"Caleb," Wentworth said. "Help Mr. Luthor to the array."

As Caleb stepped forward another slab appeared on Clark's left. Caleb grabbed Lionel Luthor by the throat and picked him up. He hurled him across the room and he landed hard on the metal slab. Wentworth shackled him while he was disoriented and stuck the electrodes to his head. He went back to the computer and typed in a few last commands.

"Now, I'll warn you," he said to the three people connected to his machine. "This is going to be extremely painful."

Suddenly the array lit up. Clark felt like there was a fire being lit inside his head. His mind seemed to leap out of him and travel across a vast distance, looking for another version of himself to merge with. He traveled all over Earth S in seconds. There was no counterpart in that world. He went back to his own world and found nothing. He was the only one of him in any of those worlds.

He screamed at the searing pain as the universe began to come together. He could tell that he was being written out of the show. There would be not Clark Kent in this new world. He was being erased from existence.

Then he found someone. His counterpart from the second world was not where he was supposed to be. He was between the worlds. He was traveling at near light speed.

"Lucas!" Clark screamed.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Light years away in another reality Lucas Luthor heard a man scream his name and he felt a fire shoot through his body. He screamed and fell from the sky. Anya called out to him and followed him down.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Clark looked over at Lionel Luthor. The man was frozen in pain. He was already merging with the other two versions of himself. His clothes were changing from a black suit to a prison jumpsuit and back again. On his other side, Billy was slowly disappearing. Apparently there was no other version of him. The three portals seemed to be moving toward one another. Soon there would be one portal leading to one world. As for himself, he could feel Lucas' strength slowly flowing into his body. He had to do something before this merging went too far. He ripped his arms from the shackles and then pulled his legs free. He swung off of the table and grabbed Luthor, yanking him free of the machine. The lights went out on the array and the pain went away.

"Darius!" Wentworth said. "Wake up your brothers…all of them!"

Clark leaned into a punch and sent Darius flying across the pocket universe, crashing into the force field and causing it to shudder. Wentworth went to the computer and the six remaining clones opened the eyes and made their way down. One after the other the clones took turns taking Clark on. He fought each one to a standstill, but managed to get the upper hand in the end. But they kept getting up and coming back. He had to get out of here. He saw that the portals to the other worlds were all still open.

"Mr. Luthor!" he yelled. "You and Professor Hamilton need to get out!"

Luthor grabbed Hamilton and they leaped through the middle portal.

"No!" Wentworth yelled. "You're ruining everything!"

Clark ran in a flash to the slab where Billy was lying. He was just beginning to come to himself and opened his eyes.

"Billy," Clark said. "Are you okay? Can you move yet?"

"Yeah," Billy replied. "I think that thing they did to me wore off. Who are you?"

Clark grabbed the shackles and pulled them off of him. "I'm Clark. I'm going to try and get you back to your world. Then I'll take care of these guys."

"Clark, I…" Billy started.

"Just follow me," he said. He turned just in time to meet Adam's fist. He flew back into the array and fell to the floor. A small meteor rock landed on his chest and he felt the burning flow through him, taking his new strength away.

"Don't let them though," Wentworth said. The clones lined up in front of the portals.

"Run for it, Billy!" Clark said as loud as he could. "Just go!" He knocked the rock off of him and started to get up.

"But, Clark…," Billy started.

"Don't talk!" Clark yelled. "Just go!" Caleb slugged him in the stomach and he bent over in pain.

But Billy did talk. He said one word that Clark would find out probably saved both of their lives.

"Shazam!" Billy said.

End of Chapter Five

Note:

Yes, Billy is Billy Batson---AKA Captain Marvel. But they're not out of the woods yet, not even close. But next chapter we're going back to Lucas, so you'll have to wait a few days to find out what happened with Clark and Billy. And don't worry; the two stories will come together soon enough.

Kal-El2k7


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Earth Fifty-Seven

12:07 AM

The rain had been falling for hours. The streets of Urban City were less crowded than they usually were on Saturday. Most everyone had found something to do indoors. They were probably enjoying a movie or a concert. This town had plenty of both to offer. There had once been a time that the citizens had been afraid to leave their homes. Almost no one could be found after dark in a place that was not either a house or an apartment building. Urban City had been known by the world for decades as a pit of crime and desperate people. A hole filled with predators and victims. That had all ended three years ago.

Tyler McDawn sat perfectly still on the roof of the museum that he called home. Of course, no one knew that he lived here. He was the curator and worked here all day long, but even the security guards thought that he went home every night after the doors were locked. They even saw him leave. No one knew that he had a small apartment underneath the building, or that he usually spent most of his nights up here, looking out over the city that he had lived in since he was a child.

Tyler had once lived a normal life. He had once had a prestigious job as a history professor at UCU where he had been able to fill a lot of young minds with his own passion of ancient history and Greek mythology. Then, he was offered the position that he now held here at the museum. He had happily taken it. He had thought that it would be glorious to be surrounded by the history that filled this building. And he had been right. For a year he was the happiest man in the world.

Then, a few years ago, a traveling exhibit came to the museum. An ancient tomb had been uncovered in Greece. Aaron, who had been known in ancient texts as the lord of darkness, had been found encased in a rock bed that had once been a volcano. All of the artifacts that had been found with him were now being shown in various cities around the world, including the petrified remains of Aaron himself.

When Tyler first laid eyes on the golden medallion that had been found in Aarons grasp, he instantly felt some sort of connection to it. He had poured days into researching its origins. Myth had it that the medallion had been forged by a wizard and contained the soul of a griffin, the mythical beast that was part lion and part eagle. It had been given to a warrior. It was said that the medallion allowed the warrior to harness the powers of the griffin and ultimately helped him defeat Aaron.

After Tyler had learned all of that, he had gone into the exhibition room after the museum had closed. He opened the case containing the medallion and reached for it. His fingers had barely come in contact with the cool surface of the metal when a pulse of energy came out of it, ran up his arm and into his chest, sending him flying across the room.

Three years later he was living a life that was totally different. His reality had completely changed. At first, he had felt like he was living inside of a comic book. Especially after he learned that the warrior that had originally held the medallion was his own ancestor and that he was still alive. And then when Aaron came back to life it had seemed even more surreal. The battle that ensued had not only changed his life, it had changed who he was. And now he used the power that the medallion had given him to protect whoever he could. And so far he had been pretty successful. Urban City was not the cesspool of crime that it had once been.

Although the rain usually washed the scum out into the open.

Tyler winced as the sky momentarily lit up the sky. For just a second Urban City was brighter than the brightest day. When it subsided, he saw what looked like two falling stars fall quickly to the earth. One of them seemed to merge with the other before they hit the ground. He judged that they impacted about two miles north in the warehouse district.

Even before he stood he felt his face change, taking on the cat like features that came with the power. He leaped off of the roof, unfurled his wings, and glided toward the scene.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Anya pressed another button on her belt and she shot forward just a little faster. She would not be able to gain any more speed. If she could not reach Lucas before he hit the ground, it would be over.

Or would it? Lucas was a Kryptonian with lots of yellow sunlight in his cells. He should be able to withstand a fall like that. But then again, he had been weakened. He had not regained all of his strength since he had come back together, and now something had caused him to lose consciousness and fall out of the sky.

They passed through a layer of storm clouds and Anya found herself rocketing toward a city twice the size of Metropolis. She knew that they only had a few seconds before impact. In one last desperate attempt, she lunged forward and caught hold of Lucas' leg. She pulled him toward her and pressed a button on her belt. A field of energy shimmered into existence around them just as the asphalt exploded in her face. She felt the rumble of the earth below her and the sound of rocks and dirt falling down all around. Then it was quiet.

"Lucas?" she said as she turned him over and looked into his face. He was not completely out cold. But his eyes had rolled back in his head and he was shivering badly. Anya looked down at the screen on her belt and saw that they were on Earth Fifty-Seven. At least they were on a charted world. She tried to remember if she had ever been here before. She could not recall the number so she pulled up the information that her computer had stored. A holographic display came to life in the air above her. As she watched the information that was known of this world play out she found herself recognizing various people and events.

"Am I in Urban City?" she asked.

Images of the history of the city began to flash in front of her. She now knew where she was, and she knew that she was going to have company soon. She was not a bit surprised when she heard a loud thump on the ground behind her and felt the wind rush across her back. She stood up and turned around.

"Tyler?" she asked.

The Griffin stepped forward from the shadows. There was a soft yellow glow in his eyes that seemed to stare into her soul as his wings folded and hid themselves behind him. Slowly, the hair on his body faded away and his face became human again. There was now a muscular man wearing nothing but a pair of faded shorts standing before her.

"Anya?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I just decided to drop in," she replied.

"Was that you that just fell out of the sky?" Tyler asked.

Anya nodded. "My friend is hurt." Tyler stepped closer and looked down into the hole that they had made in the street.

"Is that Clark Kent?" he asked. "The war hero?"

"No," Anya replied. She had forgotten that this world's version of Lucas was a general in the army. He had single handedly ended the war on terror. He had displayed his powers before the world and was not the secretary of defense. "This is Lucas. Kent's counterpart from another world."

"What?" Tyler exclaimed. "You took someone from one dimension and put them in another? Don't you know what that could cause?"

"I didn't take him," Anya said. "He's a jumper. He's like me, except that he can do it naturally."

Tyler looked down at him. "You shouldn't have brought him here, Anya," he said.

"I didn't bring him here," Anya replied. "We're trying to get to his world. He had some sort of spell and he fell. This is where we landed."

"He's been drained," Tyler said, still staring at the man in the crater. "We've got to get him off of the street before someone sees us. Urban City has come to except that there's a monster guarding them, but I don't know how they'd take to a man falling from the sky and surviving."

"If he survives," Anya said. "Where can we go?"

"I'll take you to my lair," Tyler said. Even as he said the words his body morphed back into the creature that she had seen a few moments before. He arms had tripled in size in a matter of seconds and he effortlessly grabbed Lucas with one hand and lifted him. His wings spread out and flapped three times, raising him up higher than the warehouses surrounding them. "Follow me."

Anya nodded and pressed the utilizer. A field of energy surrounded her and she shot up into the sky after him. Together they soared over the city. The lights had been dimmed by the rain, and every second that Lucas remained unconscious, her hopes dimmed as well.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

It had been over a year since Anya had seen Tyler's lair. At that time he had been a mess and so had his place. His wife had just left him and he was dealing with a crisis on a global scale. Not to mention that a crazy scientist had gone back in time to try and keep Tyler from ever acquiring his powers. Anya suspected that he had not gone back and stopped the man because he wanted to keep his powers. She was sure that he considered them more of a curse than a blessing. But he did not want all of the work that he had done since that day to be for nothing.

"I love what you've done with the place," she said as she looked around. The place that Tyler called his layer was really nothing more than a three room cell fashioned from concrete blocks and located under the basement of the museum. There was a hidden entrance behind a painting and another in the ally behind the building. There was a naked light bulb hanging from the ceiling and stacks of books that nearly hid the walls. Anya picked one of them up and blew the dust off of it. "You're really taking full advantage of your immortality by imprisoning yourself."

"I'm not immortal," Tyler said. "I told you that my aging process was slower than normal." He was in his human form now and had put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with the museum's logo on it. He had set Lucas down on the sofa that Anya guessed also served as Tyler's bed. He had plugged electrodes to different parts of his body and was busy studying the readout on his laptop.

"Any news?" Anya asked.

"I don't know much about Kryptonian physiology," Tyler said. "There seems to have been an energy surge that caused him to lose a good deal of strength. These levels are almost identical to the readings that you got from the cluster of worlds that contain his home."

"So, something happened at his home world that affected him?" Anya asked.

"Yeah," Tyler said. "But the energy is coming from all three worlds simultaneously. It's like someone is trying to do something that involves all three worlds."

"Is it the Anti-monitor?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Tyler said. "But that much energy output could certainly attract him. It needs to stop or all three of those worlds could be devoured pretty soon."

"I can't leave him," Anya said.

"Leave who?"

They both turned to the sofa and saw Lucas as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Good God!" he said. "I've got a headache."

"Yeah," Tyler said. "Taking a nosedive from the outer atmosphere into an asphalt street will do that to you."

Lucas raised his head at the sound of the other man's voice. "Who are you?"

"My name is Tyler McDawn," he replied. "I'm the Griffin."

"The who?" Lucas asked.

"We landed on Earth Fifty-Seven, Lucas," Anya said. "All of those stories about Greek gods and goddesses actually happened here. Tyler is a hero called the Griffin. He shares his body with the soul of a griffin."

"Which means that part you…" Lucas said.

"Part of me has lived for over three thousand years," Tyler said. "Although I spent most of that time in another host. One of my ancestors by the name of Raloam."

"You were alive before Christ?" Lucas asked in disbelief.

"Christ?" Tyler asked. "Jesus? He was a friend of mine. I was out of the country when they crucified him. But I did see the resurrection. It was awesome."

Lucas looked dumbfounded. Tyler and Anya laughed.

"He's messing with you," Anya said.

"Oh, an immortal with a sense of humor and a flying girl from the future," Lucas said. "Throw in a planet eating retard and its welcome back Lucas!"

"Calm down, man," Tyler said. "You had a spell." 

"What happened to me?" Lucas asked. "One minute we're headed home and the next I feel like a got hit with a mallet made from a meteor rock."

"Do you remember anything?" Anya asked.

"I remember a light opening up behind my eyes," Lucas said. "It felt like my brain was burning. And then I heard….Clark."

"Clark?" Anya asked. "Clark Kent?"

"Yeah," he replied. "The Clark from the world next to mine. He was in some sort of trouble. He was being erased or something and he drew some of my energy."

"Erased?" Tyler asked. "Wait a minute!" He punched a few keys on his laptop and brought up the imaged from Anya's utilizer of the three worlds that showed the energy output. "Someone's trying to merge all three of these worlds and make some sort of hybrid."

"But wouldn't that erase a lot of people?" Anya asked.

"Yeah," Tyler said. "Especially if they don't have a counterpart on at least on of the two worlds. Nature would weed a lot of them out to give the new universe more of a balance."

"We've got to stop them," Lucas said.

"You need to rest," Tyler replied.

"There's not time," Lucas argued.

"He's right," Anya said. "They may have already done it."

"I don't think so," Tyler said. "If they had, Lucas wouldn't be here. He would either have merged with his counterpart or they would both have faded."

"Even with my new powers?" Lucas asked.

"Yeah," Anya said. "He can jump worlds now."

"It's hard to say," Tyler said.

"Which is why I can't sit here and wait," Lucas said.

Tyler closed his laptop. "Okay," he said. "Go. But I'm going with you."

Anya shook her head. "No, Tyler. We have to pass between worlds. You wouldn't survive."

"I would if I had a utilizer," Tyler said.

"And I don't have a spare," Anya said. "I have to have enough room in my shield in case something happens to Lucas again."

"I have one," Tyler said.

"What?" she replied.

"I have a utilizer," Tyler said. "I copied the specs the last time you were here."

"The utilizer is technology that mankind won't even harness for five hundred years," Anya said.

"Did I mention that Griffins were the smartest creatures to ever live?" Tyler asked. "It's in a safe across town. I'll have to go and get it. I'll be back in one hour." He turned to Lucas. "You should rest until I get back."

Lucas nodded and stared as Tyler transformed into the Griffin. His face changed, he grew bigger, and his fingers extended and grew huge claws. Finally, his wings exploded from his back and he shot out into the night.

Anya sat down on the sofa. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Lucas said. "You saved me. You know that?"

"Yeah," Anya said. "I guess I've gotten fond of you."

"Thank you," Lucas said. He cupped her face in his hand and pulled her down to his. They kissed for a long time. And then they spent the rest of the time that Tyler was gone making love. They had found each other in a way that Lucas was sure was destiny. And for the first time in his life he felt that he could truly love this woman. It was deeper than anything that he had ever felt for either Lana or Chloe. Anya had completed him.

As they made love Lucas felt the biting memory of his old self slip away. There was no longer any bad left in him.

He would be a hero.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Lucas was staring at the shadows on the ceiling of Tyler's small home. Anya had fallen asleep with her head resting on his shoulder. He was content and knew that if he never made it home, he would love nothing more that to stay here with her forever.

Then, the door flew open.

Lucas launched himself off of the sofa and into a fighting stance in a blink. Anya was beside him with no sign in her eyes that she had been asleep. A moment later a beast came running into the room.

"Tyler!" Anya said. "What's wrong?"

"We have to go!" the Griffin roared. He turned and ran back out. Lucas grabbed the shirt that Tyler had given him and slipped it over his head. He and Anya went outside to find Armageddon.

People were running everywhere as thin beams of green energy sprayed from the sky, incinerating anything that they touched. Across the street a car vanished in front of them. They looked up to see where the beams were coming from.

They saw the Anti-Monitor.

Lucas saw the Griffin strapping the utilizer around his waist. He ran over to him.

"You can't fight that thing," he yelled.

"I have to," he screamed back. "This is my world! It's my city!"

"No, Tyler!" Anya said. "You can go with us. Maybe we can do something from somewhere else!"

"I'm not leaving my world!" the Griffin said. He launched into the air, but Lucas grabbed his foot and slung him back to the ground. He pulled his fist back and leaned into the punch. The Griffin went slack and instantly turned into Tyler again. Lucas pressed a button on Tyler's utilizer and a shield surrounded them both. He took off into the sky with Anya behind him. They faded from the universe just as a blinding light enveloped all of existence and Earth Fifty-Seven was no more.

End of Chapter Six

I know that it's been a long time, and I don't know how long it will be until I write chapter seven. I hope you guys enjoy it. R & R.

Also, before you ask, the Griffin is not a comic character. He is a character from a series of stories that I wrote from the time that I was 15 until today. I'm trying to put it all together into a novel…don't know when that will happen.

As always…

Kal-El2k7


	7. Chapter 7

Okay, so it's been a long time. But I finally got a new computer at my house and I'm finally going to be able to finish writing this story and the others that are still in my head. Anyway, here's my new chapter.

Chapter Seven

Clark had not even realized that Billy had spoken. One minute he had helped the younger man break free of his restraints, and the next he found himself being hurled through the air as if he were made of paper. He slammed his head hard into the invisible wall of the laboratory and slid limply to the floor. He passed out.

He had no idea how long he was out. It could have been a few seconds, or as far as he knew it could have been days. He pulled himself to a sitting position and looked around. The room was quiet. All six of the remaining Lucas clones were lying unconscious on the floor in front of him. Professor Wentworth was nowhere to be seen. And he could see that Billy was not anywhere around either.

"Clark?"

Clark jumped at the sudden sound of a voice in the quiet. He turned and saw a man standing a few feet away. He knew that he had not been there when he had hit the wall. He guessed that he could have entered through one of the portals that Wentworth had opened. He definitely looked like he could have come from another dimension. He was about the same height as himself, but his upper body was nearly double the size of his own. He had muscles on top of muscles. Clark thought that his body looked like the superheroes in the comic books that he used to read as a kid.

His clothes reinforced that idea. He was wearing a skin tight red suit from top to bottom, broken up only by a pair of black shorts. He had a yellow cape flowing from his back and a large yellow lightning bolt was emblazoned across his chest. He reached out with his right hand.

"Are you alright, Clark?" he asked.

"I think so," Clark said. He reached up and took the man's hand and pulled himself to his feet. "Where's Wentworth?"

"He got away," the man said. "He grabbed the key from the computer terminal."

"So he can make another one?" Clark asked.

"Probably," the man replied. "But it'll be tough without this equipment. Plus he's down six clones."



"Four of them are enough to cause damage," Clark said. "Which portal did he go through?"

The man pointed to the one in the middle. Clark had only just realized that it was the only one that was still open.

"That one," he said. "It leads to your world. Lionel Luthor and Professor Hamilton are there as well. The other two went down while I was fighting with the clones. I think I smashed the controls with one of their heads."

"You took down all of them by yourself?" Clark asked.

The man smiled and Clark noticed that it was a shy smile. He reached his hand out to him.

"I know that your name is Clark," he said. "Last name?"

"Kent," Clark said, taking his hand and shaking it. Either the effects of the meteor rocks had not yet worn off or this guy was as strong, if not stronger, than him. "Clark Kent."

"I think I've heard of you," the man said.

"Who are you?" Clark asked.

"Where I come from they call me Captain Marvel," he replied.

"Where _did _you come from?" Clark asked.

Captain Marvel laughed. "You didn't see?" he asked. Clark shook his head. "Well, I'll show you in a second. But first I think it would behoove us to destroy this unholy creation."

Clark gave the man a second glance, not sure if he heard him correctly. "Do you talk like that all of the time?"

"Talk like what?" Captain Marvel replied.

Clark shook his head. "Never mind."

"Now," Captain Marvel said, "I assume that you're still being ravaged by the green stones that Wentworth used to create this monstrosity?"

"Yeah," Clark said. "I am."

"Then you should go through the portal while I take care of this," he said.

"No," Clark said. "I think that I can…"



Clark did not finish his sentence. Captain Marvel reached out and planted his hand firmly against Clark's chest.

"No offense, Son," he said. "I just don't want to see you get hurt." With that, he gave what probably would have been considered to gentle shove, if the one being shoved happened to be a dinosaur. Clark was lifted into the air and landed in the dust in front of his own barn. He looked back at the hole in the air about five feet off the ground. He could see what he assumed to be Captain Marvel. What he actually saw was a red and yellow streak of light zipping back and forth across the invisible lab. A series of loud smashing sounds and small explosions followed. After a few moments the air was filled with a bright white light and Clark closed his eyes. Even with his eyes shut as tight as he could get them, the light still felt like it was piercing his brain. Then it was quiet.

Clark opened his eyes. The portal was gone. In its place was Captain Marvel.

"That's done," Captain Marvel said. "Now, you wanted to know where I came from. There is only one word that I can use to answer that. Shazam!"

The last word that the man said sounded like it was coming from inside Clark's mind. He felt the world explode around him. When it all settled down, Captain Marvel was gone. In the place that he had been standing was a teenage boy.

"Billy?" Clark asked.

"Billy Batson," the boy replied.

"You're Captain Marvel?"

"Sometimes," Billy said. "When I feel like he's needed."

"How does it happen?" Clark asked. "I mean, it's not like a secret identity or anything. You turned into a completely different person. You aged like twenty years."

"It's a long story, Clark," Billy said. "And I'll tell you all about it. But first, we need to find out what happened to Wentworth."

Clark nodded. "He's got four Kryptonian slaves with him. He could be anywhere."

"He went toward the mountains."

Clark and Billy turned at the sudden sound of another voice. Standing in the doorway of the barn was Lionel Luthor and Professor Hamilton. Both of them had cuts and bruises all over them and their clothes were in rags. Luthor was clutching his arm and Clark suddenly remembered that Wentworth had shot him in his shoulder.

"Are you two alright?" Clark asked.



"I believe so, Clark," Luthor said. "Thank you. I believe you saved our lives…again."

"We're not out of the woods yet," Billy said. "Wentworth took the key that started this whole thing. He can build that array all over again."

"But won't he need us to make it work?" Luthor asked.

"No," Professor Hamilton said. "He only needs a person from each of the three worlds that he's trying to merge. It doesn't have to be the three of you. I'm pretty sure that he was using you because he has some kind of a grudge against each of you."

"Well, he hates every version of me that exists," Luthor said. "And I suppose he knows that Clark or Lucas both have the ability to stop him."

"And he's from my world," Billy said. "I've been trying to catch him for months. I never realized that he had escaped from my dimension."

Clark felt that he owed Luthor and Hamilton an explanation about Billy.

"This is Billy Batson," Clark said. "He…"

"We saw the whole thing from the barn," Luthor said. "Captain Marvel is very impressive."

"Thanks," Billy said shyly.

"Okay," Clark said. "So, Billy and I will head into the mountains and try to find him before he can build another array."

"He can't just build another array, Clark," Hamilton said. "It took me years to build the projector that he used for that one. He'll most likely go to the place where he can find another one like it."

"LuthorCorp," Clark said.

"I believe that will be his ultimate destination." Hamilton said.

"So, we shouldn't follow him into the mountains?" Billy asked.

"He only went there to regroup," Luthor said. "Hamilton's double from this world has a projector at LuthorCorp. Wentworth will try to get to it as quickly as possible."

"Then he'll try to do the whole thing over again," Clark said. "We'll go in a second. Mr. Luthor, can I speak to you?" Luthor nodded and they stepped away from the other two men.

"What is it Clark?" Luthor asked.



"I just wanted to let you know that it happened again. Remember when I told you that when I Lucas was caught in the beam of the projector that we sort of merged?"

"Yes," the other man said, intrigued.

"When I was on that table," Clark said. "It happened again. I took power from him and it saved my life. Lucas is alive. I don't know where he is…but he's alive."

Luthor smiled. "Thank you, Clark. You don't know what that means to me."

Clark smiled and Luthor laid a hand on his shoulder. Then he turned and looked at Billy. "Can you run as fast as I can?"

"I can do you one better, C.K.," the younger man said. He leaped into the air and shouted "Shazam!". Instantly Clark saw Captain Marvel rising into the sky and soaring toward Metropolis.

"Oh," he said to himself. "He can fly."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Clark arrived in front of LuthorCorp about seven minutes later and found Billy sitting comfortably on a bus stop bench a block away.

"What kept you, C.K.?" he asked.

"You can fly," Clark replied.

"That I can," Billy said. "You can't?"

"I have," Clark said. "I don't know. It's a long story."

"I think we have time," Billy said. "Wentworth is nowhere to be seen."

"Well, if that's the case," Clark said. "I'd say that you owe me a story first."

Billy smiled. "You're right." Clark sat down beside him. "When I was twelve I used to spend most of my time taking the bus to the museum in the city where I live. I would spend the whole day looking at the exhibits and then ride home when the place closed. One night I got off the bus about three blocks from the apartment where I lived with my mom when I noticed some weird lights coming from an alley. I was a curious kid, so I went to check them out.

"I followed the alley for what seemed like forever. I didn't realize that along the way it had become a tunnel and that I was walking deeper and deeper into the earth. It had been so dark when I started that I never noticed that a cavern had enveloped me as I walked. I don't know how far I walked. Maybe a mile…maybe five. I don't know.



When I finally got to the end of the path, I saw and old man sitting alone by a fire. I remember that the fire was really weird. It was glowing with all sorts of different colors, and all of those colors were shooting up into the air. He looked at me. I thought that he was going to kill me.

His eyes were burning holes in me. It was like he was looking right through me. He said that I was a curious kid. I couldn't say anything back. I was so scared. He told me that he had chosen me to be his new ambassador. He said that I would gain the powers of all of these ancient heroes every time that I called his name."

"That's the magic word that you use?" Clark asked.

Billy nodded. "I say that word and Captain Marvel takes over. It's me, but at the same time it's somebody else. It's hard to explain."

"I've got a thousand questions to ask you," Clark said.

"I've got about that many for you," Billy replied.

"But we need to get this taken care of first," Clark said. The younger man nodded. "Stay here. I'm going to have a look around inside."

"Alright," Billy said. Clark got up and went into the massive LuthorCorp building. Billy closed his eyes and smiled. It was great to be able to talk to someone about his secret. He had not met many others that shared a similarity like he shared with Clark. He knew right then that he and Clark would be friends for a long time. He still had his eyes closed when he sensed Clark sit down beside him again. "You're back already?"

"Yes," Clark said. Billy looked up and saw the older boy looking off into space.

"What's up, Clark?" Billy asked. Suddenly, Clark grabbed him and held his hand over his mouth like an iron clamp. Billy realized immediately that this was not Clark, and that he could not say the only word that was going to save him.

"Don't say one damned word," a voice said from behind him. Billy knew that it was Wentworth. "Take him upstairs!"

End of chapter seven.

I know that it wasn't the best chapter, but it's a bridge to get the story together. It won't be long until Clark and Lucas are reunited.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Kal-El2k7


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"How much further is it?"

Anya looked down at the screen on her utilizer and shook her head.

"I'm not sure," she said. "Whatever it is that caused your world to fluctuate made it disappear from the computer's memory. We're just going to have to find it on our own."

Lucas shifted Tyler's weight onto the other shoulder. He sighed and slowed down a little.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Lucas asked. "We're just supposed to find it by looking at it?"

"I guess," she said.

"Anya, they all look the same!" he yelled. Anya jerked at the sudden rise in his tone. They stopped flying through the ether and drifted. She turned to him.

"I know that, Lucas," she said.

"The only one of these planets that we've passed that didn't look exactly like all of the others was that stupid square one," Lucas said.

"Well, we know that there should be three worlds in a cluster," Anya said. "We could start by looking for that."

"That narrows it down to about four zillion," he replied. "Look. That thing...that anti-monitor...is following us."

"I know he is," she replied. "We're leaving some sort of signature behind us that he's able to see or smell or whatever."

"I thought that you were usually the one that tracks him," Lucas said.

"I am," she said. "But I'm traveling with you. He may be following you."

"How?" Lucas asked.

"I can't say for certain, Lucas," she said. "I'm not sure of how your powers work and they're so new that you don't know how they work either. You weren't able to jump worlds until after your accident with the kryptonite beam. Maybe you're leaving behind some of that energy when you cross over."

"Then I need to stop doing it," Lucas said. "If I cross over to my own world I may lead him right to my door."

"But if you don't then you won't be able to help Clark," Anya said. "You know that he's involved in whatever it is that's going on. You sensed it."

Lucas nodded. "I know. I've got to get there."

Tyler groaned.

"Should I knock him out again?" Lucas asked.

"You caught him off guard the first time," she said. "He'll be ready for you the second time."

"But I'm..."

Anya laughed. "It doesn't matter. He's the Griffin. He's defeated villains stronger than you."

Lucas gave her a disbelieving grin and looked at the man on his shoulder as he raised his head.

"Oh, my head," Tyler groaned. He pushed away from Lucas but the other man grabbed him by his arm before he fell out of the force field. "You hit me you son of a..."

"I'm sorry," Lucas said. "You were going to get yourself killed."

"Did that thing eat my world?" Tyler asked.

Anya nodded. "I'm sorry, Ty. Earth Fifty-Seven doesn't exist anymore."

"What about Megan?" He asked. "And what about Ashley?"

"Who are they?" Lucas asked.

"His ex-wife and their daughter," Anya replied. She looked at Tyler. "They're gone, Ty. Everybody is gone."

"You shouldn't have made me leave," Tyler said, tears welling up in his eyes. "I should have had the chance to stop him!"

"Dude, we just saved your life," Lucas said. "I'm sorry about your family, but we don't have time to cry about it right now. If you want to do something about what just happened then help us take that thing down. He's following us."

"What?" Tyler asked as he turned to Anya. "I didn't know that he did that."

"He doesn't," Anya said. "Not to me anyway. I think that he's following Lucas. He's attracted to his energy."

"So you're going to go home?" he asked. "What's the matter with you? Did you have your eyes closed back there. I just lost everything. Do you want to lose everyone that's important to you?"

"Everyone that's important to me on my world want nothing to do with me," Lucas said. "But, no, I don't want to see my world get eaten. But there's something going on there that has nothing to do with the Anti-monitor that I have to help with."

"The energy fluctuations," Tyler said as if he just remembered what they had been discussing before the attack. "Okay. I'm in. Where is your world?"

"We can't find it," Anya said.

"Why not?" Tyler asked. Anya told him about Lucas' world being wiped from her utilizer's memory. "You scanned him to find out which world he came from. Didn't you?"

"Of course I did," Anya said.

"Well, then you should let the utilizer scan for the same signature," he said. "It should lead you right to it."

Anya told herself that the only reason that she had not thought of that herself was because of the incredible stress that she was under. But she knew that she was not focusing. She would have to get herself together if she was going to be any help to Lucas in the battle that she knew that they were facing.

"Alright," Anya said, pressing a few buttons on the device on her belt. She pointed into the distance. "It's that way."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

"I'm going to use this thing on you one more time," Wentworth said. "The next time that I have to use it, I'm going to set it to kill you. I would advise you to think twice about doing anything stupid."

Billy was being held by one of the Lucas clones while another one kept his hand firmly placed over his mouth like a clamp. He knew that he could not get free enough to say his magic word, and so Captain Marvel was not coming to save him any time soon. He watched as Doctor Wentworth reached into his pocket and pulled out the device that had been used on him earlier. He pointed it at him and a flash of energy erupted from it. He instantly lost all feeling in his entire body. He could see, but he could not turn his head to look at anyone. The clone dropped him to the floor and then dragged him to a chair.

The room was almost dark. He guessed that he had been taken to one of the seldom used laboratories in the upper floors of the LuthorCorp building. He heard Wentworth talking to the four remaining clones.

"Clark Kent is in this building," he said. "I want you to find him. Jacob!"

The clone that he was addressing looked confused.

"I am Han, Father," he said.

"I can't tell you boys apart outside of the lab," Wentworth said. "I want you four to spread out and cover this building."

"Yes, Father," they all said in unison.

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

Clark reached the top of the stairs and stepped out onto the roof. He was not usually one to panic in the face of danger, but he was getting to point of freaking out. He had barely gotten inside the building before his ears and picked up on the scuffle. When he looked back out at the bench where he had left Billy he saw four doubles of himself dragging the boy in his direction. He had ducked into the stairwell and tracked them as the took the elevator to the thirty-second floor. He had no idea what they were doing to him in there, but it could not be good.

He stepped over to the edge of the roof and looked over at the street. There was no sign of them. By now Wentworth would have sent the clones to look for him. He had to know that he and Billy had come here together. He would have just gone back down the stairs but he knew that they would just expose him to kryptonite again and drag him to where ever it was they had taken Billy. If he could just stay free for the time being, it would be that much longer that Wentworth would not be able to recreate his array.

"I can't do that," Clark told himself. "I can't just hide here until it all passes over. That's not what I do. Lucas may have taken a part of me, but my spine wasn't in that part." He turned and stepped toward the door leading back into the building. Just as he was reaching for the doorknob he stopped in his tracks. "Lucas."

An idea formed in his mind. He knew that it was a long shot, but it was worth a shot. If he had been able to sense Lucas out there somewhere when he had been hooked up to Wentworth's machine then it meant that they were still connected on some level.

He stepped away from the door and sat down on the concrete of the roof. He had to concentrate. He closed his eyes and pulled his knees up to his chest. He slowed his breathing and thought about Lucas Luthor.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

"There it is, Lucas!" Anya yelled as they soared quickly toward three identical earths that lay out in front of them. She pointed to one of them. "That's your world! We should cross over now so that we can..."

"No!" Lucas yelled. He grabbed his head and closed his eyes. "That's not where we need to go."

"What's wrong?" Tyler asked.

"It's Clark," he said. "I can hear him. I think he's trying to call me."

"Then let's get down there," Anya said.

"He's not in my universe," Lucas said. "He's in his own. But something is happening. Something that affects all of them."

"So we need to go to that one," Anya said. "That's Earth Seventy-Four."

"Yeah," Lucas said. "Let's cross over. But when we get there we have to land in Metropolis. I've got a feeling that LuthorCorp has a role to play in all of this."

"It usually does," Anya said.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Clark opened his eyes suddenly when a crashing sound rang in his ears. He looked up and saw a burst of light fill the noon sky. For a second it looked as if there were two suns. He stood and looked up at the light until it subsided and he saw three shapes descending toward the city. One of them had wings. The other two were an average sized man and woman. He waved at them and they angled their descent to intercept him.

"Lucas!" Clark said. "I can't believe it worked!"

Lucas landed and grabbed Clark in a tight hug as if he were a brother that he had not seen in years. When they pulled back Clark saw that the other man had tears in his eyes.

"Clark," he said. "There is so much that I need to say."

"Well you can start by telling me how you're flying," Clark said. "But not now. Right now I need you. He turned to Lucas' companions, giving a curious look at the man with a cat's face and wings on his back. "I'm Clark Kent."

"Clark," Lucas said. "This is Anya. She helped me get back on my feet and get here. And this is the Griffin. He's a hero from another world. We have to talk. There this thing that's..."

"Lucas, you don't understand," Clark said. "There is a crisis right here, right now! Professor Hamilton's double from another world is trying to merge this world with your's and another one."

"He's creating an amalgam universe," the Griffin said. "But why?"

"It's a long story," Clark said. "He's trying to resurrect his wife and son. Anyway, he's got the clones down there, but they..."

"What clones?" Lucas asked.

"Your clones," Clark said. "The clones that Lionel had made of you at your house."

"Clark," Lucas said. "I'm sorry, but my memory of my life before the accident is almost nonexistent. I hardly remember anything about myself. My mind is like a big block of swiss cheese."

Clark sighed. "There are four men down there that look exactly like us and have all of our powers without any of our weaknesses."

"They're immune to the meteor rocks?" Lucas asked. Clark nodded. "Where are they now?"

"I imagine that they've split up to look for me," Clark said. "Wentworth went to the thirty-second floor. He's got a computer that will separate himself from the universe. If we don't get to him before he turns it on he'll be gone. And he's got this kid with him that we have to save if he hasn't killed him yet."

"Who is Wentworth?" Anya asked.

"That's Hamilton's counterpart," Clark said. "Look, I can play catchup all day long."

"No need," the Griffin said. "I think we should go in two groups. If these guys are as powerful as the Clark Kent from my world then it would be useless to take them on one at a time."

"Yeah," Lucas said. "Tyler, you go with Clark and start sweeping the even floors. Anya and I will take the odd ones."

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

The Griffin retracted his wings and melted back into his human appearance as he and Clark emerged on the fortieth floor. Clark gave him an interested look.

"When this is over you're going to have to tell me your story," he said.

"We'll have beers as soon as the universe is safe," Tyler said with a smile.

"Yeah," Clark said. "This Wentworth guy is relentless. I can't imagine what kind of mind it takes to think that billions of lives in exchange for two is an even trade."

"Wentworth," Tyler replied. "I was talking about the Anti-monitor."

"The anti-what?" Clark asked.

"Oh, we didn't get that far," Tyler said. "There's a planet eating monster following us and we're pretty sure that your world is the next to go. But we'll handle this first."

Clark stopped walking and stared at Tyler as he continued down the hall. Tyler turned back to him.

"Are you coming?" he asked. Clark nodded and followed. They had not made it to the end of the hall before a man came around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. He made eye contact with Clark. Tyler immediately saw that the new man was the spitting image of his companion.

"That's him," Clark said. Tyler took off toward the man at a full sprint, his body morphing so fast that Clark barely even saw it happen. His wings lifted him off the floor and allowed him to drop down on the double from above. But the doppelganger's Kryponian heritage was evident as he tossed the creature down the hall. The Griffin crashed into the wall beside Clark, sending wood and morter splintering off in all directions. "Are you alright?"

"I usually last longer than that," the Griffin said. "Let's hit him at the same time. I'll go high and you go low."

Clark nodded.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Anya tapped a button on her utilizer and a finger of electricity reached out and crackled over the body of the clone in front of her. It's brother was slowly walking down the hall behind him. Lucas was trying to pick himself up off of the floor and take a few pieces of concrete out of his hair.

"This isn't working!" Anya yelled. "There's nothing that I can do to slow them down!"

"Turn up the power!" Lucas yelled. "They have to have a fail safe. Hamilton wouldn't have created a controllable clone without programming a way to turn it off. If they get a strong enough jolt it should knock them out cold."

Anya pressed another button and the energy changed from yellow to a bright blue and there was a high pitched hum that filled the air. The clone began the jerk uncontrollably in the grasp of the beam. She let him go and he crumpled to the floor.

"It worked," Lucas said. He pointed to the other one that was still approaching. "Now, do it to him."

"I can't," Anya said. "That took all of my power. My utilizer is dead."

"Crap," Lucas said.

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Clark straddled the clone on the floor and repeatedly beat his face with his face until his knuckles were covered in blood. The clone lay motionless.

"Clark!" the Griffin yelled. "Don't kill him!"

Clark stopped and looked at his fist. There were bright drops of blood falling from his fingers. He had never felt that much rage without being under some outside influence.

"I guess I know what part of Lucas I got," Clark said. He checked the clones pulse and verified that he was still alive. "Let's head downstairs."

"I can hear Anya and Lucas battling two clones on the floor beneath us," the Griffin said. "Should we help them or find the fourth?"

"We've got to get to that lab," Clark said. "If Wentworth activates that machine before we get there then none of this is going to matter."

They headed toward the stairwell. As they passed a deserted conference room the Griffin stopped and stepped inside.

"Clark!" he called. Clark followed him into the room and followed his gaze out the window. There was a huge creature emerging from the sky and settling down on the roof of the Daily Planet building across the street. It looked over the entire city and shot a green beam of energy out of its eyes at another building, evaporating it.

"What is that thing?" Clark asked.

"That is the Anti-monitor," the Griffin said. "Witness your world's end."

End of Chapter Eight

Note:

Yes, it has been a while since I last wrote on this story even though I promised that I would finish it since I got my own computer. I'm sorry. There's been a lot of illnesses in my house lately. But everyone is on the mend and I'm ready to finish this story. I have an original story that I'll be working on next that I'll probably be putting on the other site. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please R&R and take care.

Kal-el


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